Destination
the Double Star
Two charming little towns, Edam and Volendam, are like two pearls of old Holland. We will walk the narrow streets and beautiful canals of Edam, famous the world over for its incomparable cheese. And then we will take in the atmosphere of a genuine old fishing town in wonderfully colourful Volendam. Tiny wooden houses, traditional costumes, picturesque harbours and very interesting stories await you.
Which marketing genius managed to turn a small and poor fishing village into a worldwide tourist Mecca? How did ordinary fishermen and fisherwomen live and survive in very harsh conditions, and what connects them with Montmartre in Paris? What is palingsound, and what makes the people of modern Volendam unique? And of course we will enjoy the best herring and eel in the world, to the gentle splash of the sea. And if you wish, you can have your photograph taken in traditional dress :)
The tour lasts 3 hours and covers the centres of Edam and Volendam. Travel between the towns is by city bus, roughly 30 minutes.
Here you can see how a small town became known far beyond the Netherlands — all through the cheese trade. The Kaaswaag, a seventeenth century building on Kaasmarktplein, still stands in its place. And in July and August, every Wednesday, the traditional cheese market is re-enacted here.
The heart of old Edam: an eighteenth century town hall, old merchant houses, canals, little bridges and historic buildings. It is here that you feel most strongly that Edam was a wealthy trading town of the Golden Age, not merely the quiet place it seems today.
Something a visitor never expects to find in so small a town. An enormous late Gothic church of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, famous for its 32 stained glass windows. It is considered one of the most remarkable churches in the Netherlands.
Herring, smoked eel or kibbeling, right on the waterfront. This is not merely food but part of Volendam's history: its fishing culture and its bond with the former Zuiderzee, a sea that no longer exists on the map.
A genuine old quarter — a labyrinth of narrow lanes and small houses where fishermen once lived. Touristic Volendam stays on the waterfront; two steps away the town becomes far more authentic.
At the end of the nineteenth century painters began coming to Volendam, and this is where they stayed. Many paid for their lodging not in money but in pictures. And so an ordinary hotel in a small fishing town gathered a collection many a museum would envy.
