July 15 Edam & Vollendam

Up early in the morning. The water in the canal was placid; the sky was pink beyond the idle draw bridge.

We reviewed the options and decided to spend today exploring the local territory -- Edam, where we're staying, and nearby Vollendam.
Wednesday is the day of the cheese market in Edam. It's an elaborate reenactment for tourists of an event that happened weekly for about 150 years until early in the 20th century. It also provides an opportunity for tourists to photograph children who are too cute to believe.
Not to mention her majesty the Cheese Queen.
The cheese market event began with a brass band parade from the city square to the market area.

At the market area, an old fashioned cheese auction is held -- just like the original except for the thousand or so tourists.
And the thousand or so cheese vendors.
At the conclusion of the cheese market festivities, we joined a boat tour through the canals of Edam.
The historical tour included the Old Town residential area,
a very low bridge,
and Kate's personally selected "cutest cottage in the world ever."
We also got to see our own hotel room close up from the water -- experiencing maintenance this day. The tour was very interesting, we think. We're not sure because the commentary was in Dutch. One of the fringe benefits of discovering a place where relatively few American tourists are to be found.
Some other random sights from the boat tour, including the mailman making his rounds:
After this exhausting itinerary it was time for a nap. Then we decided to walk to Vollendam, the port city which is actually part of the same township as Edam. It's about a kilometer away as the crow flies, and about ten kilometers away as Kate and Don walk. Vollendam is a place where American tourists, and every other kind of tourists, DO appear.
In order o fit in, Kate and I struck touristic poses.
The walk back to Edam along the dike was a sight to behold.
Back in town, we stopped at the Harmonie Cafe and Pension. It's a ways out of the main part of Edam, and caters to the local crowd. They were having the weekly fish buffet, but despite my pathetic pleading they wouldn't let us partake because they were sold out. The owner did sit with us at the outside table for quite a while. He is a former social worker and avid musician. In addtion to the weekly fish buffet he has twice weekly musical performances, usually by fairly well known musicians on tour. We found out about him at just the wrong time, and we'll miss not only the fish buffet but the performances. He did buy us each a beer as consolation, though. Next time we'll stay here.
The fish buffet crowd:
So, we ate at an Italian place and went home to bed.