It only took 20mins or so for us to walk into the centre of Alkmaar.   It took a lot longer to get used to watching out for cyclists - who have priority over pedestrians!  there are so many of them and they all ride so fast.   We had a lovely time just wandering around all the canals. As usual for us, after walking all the way round it, we found the big church was firmly locked!
It was a shame that the big Cheese Market is held on Friday's, but we weren't going to buy a whole Gouda cheese anyway! Monday seemed to be early closing day, so there weren't many people around - just how we like it. I'll let the photos show you around:


We decided that we liked Alkmaar very much, it is a bit like a small scale Amsterdam, without the big museums and art galleries but just as scenic, and far less crowded