The ceremonial cheese market runs on Wednesday mornings in July and August, from around 10:30 to 12:30. It is a theatrical recreation of the old trade rather than a working market — the last real cheese auction ended in 1922 — but the spectacle is genuine: white-suited porters carry the rounds on wooden stretchers and the Waag officials go through their weighing routine. Outside these weeks, Edam is quieter and more pleasant to wander without the day-trip crowds from Amsterdam.
Spring and early autumn are the best times for cycling the IJsselmeer polders. The flat lanes around Edam pass through a landscape of windmills, cows, and reclaimed sea floor that looks much as it has for centuries.