Edam, NL

Edam, NL

Say Cheese! 

It is important, come on, say “Cheese”!  

So Many Cheeses, Which To Choose?

Well, it may not be important to you, but visit the town of Edam and you are in the epicenter of one of the most famous cheeses in the world. They even named a cheese after this town. I had to find a cheese factory in Edam to buy the local cheese. And I bought lots of it. We have a car, so I can pack stuff now. I love this cheese. My best meal would be a loaf of fresh French bread, some cheese (any kind) and a bottle of wine. Those are happy thoughts. Ever since I was a kid, growing up right next to the Dutch border, fresh Dutch Cheese was a treat for me. My mom used to buy it on occasion and ‘fresh cheese’ on a small roll (kind of like a French bread) even then was the best treat. 

Naturally we wanted to visit Amsterdam while being in the Netherlands but I thought staying in or near Edam would be better. The town is only about an hour North of Amsterdam, so it suited us fine to stay near to it. We chose the vacation resort in Volendam, a planned holiday resort that offered great prices in the low season. And like I said, we could take the local bus, right in front of the hotel, Hotel Marinapark, into the center of Amsterdam. Carol and I did some local exploring via car and got perfectly lost. We covered local streets in and around Volendam, drove through subdivisions, saw how people lived, moved with the traffic and enjoyed not knowing where we really were. After a while I had to set the GPS and this gizmo brought us back to our hotel without trouble. We did not have to know the roads; it was much more fun making a left, right or whatever to just follow our noses. Yes, we had to make U-turns a couple of times but it was all part of exploring the ‘real’ Holland, too. After securing my cheese and having settled in to our hotel we were set to now go and visit Amsterdam.