Markets, Sieges and Hidden Histories: An Alkmaar Walking Tour

Alkmaar has been synonymous with cheese for centuries, but there's far more to this compact Dutch city than that. On this walking tour, you'll trace how a small medieval town became a symbol of Dutch defiance against the Spanish. You'll also discover how war, religion, and trade shaped the streets you're walking through today.

The tour starts at De Waag, the 14th-century guesthouse that eventually became the weighing house at the heart of the city's historic cheese trade. From there, you'll cross canal bridges, pass through Kennemer Park, once part of the city's star-shaped defensive fortifications, and the St.Laurens Church. Along the way, you'll hear about the 1573 Siege of Alkmaar, when the city's resistance against Spanish forces turned the tide of the Eighty Years' War and gave rise to the phrase Victory begins at Alkmaar.

The tour ends at Sonoy's Courtyard, once a Catholic convent seized during the Reformation and later home to a Dutch military commander who led the revolt against Spain.

On this 60-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• See the cannonball still embedded in the Huis met de Kogel, fired during the 1573 Spanish siege
• Learn about Cornelis Drebbel, the Alkmaar-born inventor who built the world's first navigable submarine beneath the River Thames
• Visit the statue of Truus Wijsmuller, the Mother of 1001 Children, who organised Kindertransports to rescue Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Europe
• Explore the Vismarkt, a 16th-century fish market where merchants used the canal to keep their catch fresh, though the water quality told a different story
• Admire Saint Laurens Church located at the heart of the old city centre

By the end, you'll have a genuine sense of how this small city has developed throughout Dutch history.