Edam

Edam was a shipbuilding and trading town on the Zuiderzee before the harbour silted, and it lent its name to the cheese sold through its market from the fourteenth century - a semi-hard cheese in a sphere, waxed red for export and yellow for the home market, which travelled well and was shipped worldwide. The market ran commercially until 1922 and is now staged on Wednesday mornings in July and August with the guild, carriers and handclap trading, on a smaller scale than Alkmaar's. The town itself is the reason to stay: canals with wooden bascule bridges, the Speeltoren, a leaning fifteenth-century tower left when its church was demolished, and the Grote Kerk, which has one of the largest sets of seventeenth-century stained glass in the country. It is a few minutes from Volendam and far quieter.

What you actually see

• The cheese town - the market that named the red-waxed sphere sold worldwide.
• A summer cheese market - Wednesday mornings in July and August, with the guild.
• The Speeltoren - a leaning fifteenth-century tower whose church was pulled down.
• Seventeenth-century glass - one of the largest surviving sets in the Grote Kerk.

When to go

July and August for the market; April to September otherwise. A day.

Honest expectations

The market is a staged demonstration on limited summer dates, not a trade. Coach parties come through from Volendam. The Grote Kerk keeps seasonal hours. Parking is outside the centre.

Nearby

Volendam and Marken are south; Hoorn is north-east.