Netherlands - Cheese, Wood Shoes, and Windmills

All these topics in a single day trip! We started this day by going to the cheese market at Alkmaar. The cheese here is terrific. We tried goat, sheep, and cow (of coarse) cheese. Historically, I don't like goat cheese. Until today I had never tried sheep cheese. I tried all of theese and liked them all! My wife didn't care much for the goat or sheep cheeses, but we did end up buying 3 different types of local cheese.

This picture is where we actually bought some of the cheese.

This is the main market, buyers select the cheese from a supplier then the cheese is brought into the building in the background and weighed. This view gives you a good idea of the size of the cheese wheels.

This is a better view of the building where the cheese is weighed.

I don't recall the name of the next town we visited but it was all about windmills and what they are used for. The windmills in Holland were used to power all sorts of industry. some of these include: making cheese, pressing oil from nuts, making wooden shoes, and even emptying lakes.

Below is a demonstration of shoe making.

This is the first view as we got off the bus. The photo doesn't do justice to the size of these things.

A closer view of a windmill.