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Greetings from Holland

Taken at Cheese Market (Kaasmarkt) in Alkmaar, Netherlands.

The largest of its kind anywhere in the World, this cheese market turns a square in central Alkmaar into a hive of activity, as the cheese carriers dart about, slaloming between thousands of Gouda cheese wheels lined up on the ground.traditional merchant cheese markets as operated in the post-medieval period, re-enacted during the summer months for tourists. The shows are today surrounded by stalls selling all things traditional to the Dutch culture, including cheese.

www.iamsterdam.com/en/visiting/what-to-do/attractions-and...

 

Dutch cheese farmers traditionally brought their cheeses to the market square in town to sell. Teams (vemen) of official guild cheese-porters (kaasdragers), identified by differently coloured straw hats associated with their forwarding company, carried the farmers' cheese on barrows, which typically weighed about 160 kilograms. Buyers then sampled the cheeses and negotiated a price using a ritual system called handjeklap in which buyers and sellers clap each other's hands and shout prices. Once a price is agreed, the porters carry the cheese to the weighing house (Waag), and scale of their company.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_cheese_markets

 

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Uploaded on June 19, 2016
Taken on June 10, 2016