The Alkmaar cheese market is the most theatrical of the surviving Dutch cheese markets, running every Friday morning from late March to late September on the Waagplein. Around ten o'clock the wheels of Gouda are laid out in long lines on the square; teams of white-clad carriers in coloured straw hats inspect them, buyers and sellers haggle with ritual hand-claps, and the cheese is then weighed in the historic Waag building and loaded onto horse-drawn carts.
The whole performance lasts until around 12:30. It is touristy — there is a grandstand for tour groups and the carriers play to the cameras — but the trading is genuinely traditional and the spectacle is well done. Come early (well before 10:00) for a spot at the front, or take a seat in one of the cafés around the square for a more relaxed view. Outside the Friday-morning window the square is just an ordinary cobbled plaza.