We packed and were on the road by about 10am as planned. I had sorted out a place to stop after an hour, and a lunch spot, both geared around caches but also with minor detours from the motorway.

The first took us to where we stopped to take a photo. We then went into the town for a coffee for the driver. It was easy parking and a nice bakery.

Stop 2 was in Ganderkesee where there was a church I wanted to visit. This was also our lunch stop. While I wandered around the church Katherine wandered the village area and found an Italian restaurant. Then Katherine went back with me to help me find a feature I had missed, which proved to be a WW2 memorial to 2 RAF crew. I could also go inside the church as it was listed as having a most impressive organ. Katherine said that sounded a bit dodgy.

Unfortunately, at the restaurant, all the outside tables were taken, but we were comfortable sitting inside, and the meal was fine.

We were then back in the car and on mainly motorways as we headed for the Netherlands. We were always going to go over the Afsluitdijk which is rhe road that we recalled fondly that went through the North Sea. Sadly, it was not quite as nice as we remembered, mainly because we had forgotten that the view was not available on both sides for much of the time the whole length and also it was quite chilly, with the wind blasting in from the north.

The drive then was in North Holland, which we have enjoyed in the past. It is always neat and tidy, with the odd windmill. We arrived at our Bnb which is called Dijk43 because it is on a street by a dijk, and our loft room had a view of the water. We have breakfast provided here which made one less bag to move in.

Our Bnb was chosen near Alkmaar and our arrival timed so we could go to the first night cheese market of the season. I knew it was very touristy, but we are tourists!! There was a map at our Bnb which told us the parking areas in the town and we parked in a building a couple of minutes’ walk away.

We turned the corner to find the noise, crowds and activity. The commentary was in a mix of languages, including English, but we never did work out exactly what was happening. There were clearly some teams and people were wearing hats with bands in different colours. They loaded rounds of ‘cheese’ onto trays which were carried by 2 people with straps over their shoulders who managed to run while still keeping the trays level. We were not sure if there was a competition or if it was just a display. It was oddly fascinating.

There were also women in traditional outfits wandering around and having photos taken, while also selling cheese bags. These contained cheese,  a cheese knife and cheese cookies in them and were a good price if we had wanted one.

We finally went around the market area as well. There was a lot of cheese for tasting and for sale, but also other market stalls. We turned down the opportunity to find our weight in cheese but John did take a cheesy photo of Katherine and me with our heads popped through a lage cheese model.

We were not that hungry after our cheese tasting, having especially liked the truffle cheese. So our evening meal became cheese toasties and then a shared plate of belgian pancakes (pofertjes) with Baileys and whipped cream as a topping. We then walked around part of the town because it was attractive and still light at 9pm, and a very pleasant temperature.

We took some lovely photos in the evening as we strolled around the canals. There were lots of people on the canal enjoying the warm evening.

We then returned to our accommodation after a pleasant day.