Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [89]
Day-trips from the city | Volendam, Marken and Edam | Marken |
Practicalities
Marken is accessible direct from Amsterdam by bus #111, departing from outside Centraal Station (every 30min); the journey takes forty minutes. The bus drops passengers beside the car park on the edge of Marken village, from where it’s a five-minute walk to the lakeshore. Marken does not have a VVV. A passenger ferry, the Marken Express (029/936 3331, www.markenexpress.nl; March–Oct daily 11am–5pm, every 30–45min; 25-min journey; €7 return, bikes €2 return), links Marken with Volendam, but otherwise travelling between the two means a fiddly bus trip involving a change of buses – and bus stops – at Monnickendam, itself a former Zuider Zee port, but now a busy sailing centre. The Amsterdam–Marken bus #111 stops on the southern edge of Monnickendam at the Swaensborch stop, from where it’s a ten-minute walk across Monnickendam to the Bernhardbrug stop for bus #110 or #118 north to Volendam and Edam. Just back from the main harbour, the Hof van Marken hotel, Buurt II, 15 (0299/601 300), has very comfortable rooms, furnished in a bright contemporary style from €95, and a simple but elegant restaurant, open Wed–Sun for dinner, and lunch and dinner at weekends. The Land en Zeezicht restaurant on the harbour at Havenbuurt 6 (0299/601 302) does a decent smoked eel sandwich as well as more substantial meals.
Day-trips from the city | Volendam, Marken and Edam |
Edam
Just 3km from Volendam, you might expect EDAM to be jammed with tourists, considering the international fame of the rubbery red balls of cheese that carry its name. In fact, Edam usually lacks the crowds of Volendam and Marken and remains a delightful, good-looking and prosperous little town of neat brick houses, high gables, swing bridges and slender canals. Founded by farmers in the twelfth century, it experienced a temporary boom in the seventeenth as a shipbuilding centre with river access to the Zuider Zee. Thereafter, it was back to the farm – and the excellent pasture land surrounding the town is still grazed by large herds of cows, though nowadays most Edam cheese is produced elsewhere – in Germany, among other places (“Edam” is the name of a type of cheese and not its place of origin). This does, of course, rather undermine the authenticity of Edam’s open-air cheese market, held every Wednesday morning in July and August on the Kaasmarkt, but it’s still a popular attraction and the only time the town heaves with tourists.
Day-trips from the city | Volendam, Marken and Edam | Edam |
Arrival and information
Every thirty minutes or so, buses #110, #116 and # 118 leave from outside Amsterdam’s Centraal Station bound for Edam; the journey takes forty minutes. Edam’s bus station is on the southwest edge of town, on Singelweg, a five- to ten-minute walk from Damplein, where the VVV, in the Stadhuis (mid-March to Oct Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, also Sun 1–4.30pm in July & Aug; Nov to mid-March Mon–Sat 10am–3pm; 0299/315 125, www.vvv-edam.nl), issues town maps and brochures. The VVV also has details of – and takes bookings for – local boat trips, both along the town’s canals and out into the Markermeer. Bike rental is available at Ronald Schot, in the town centre at Grote Kerkstraat 7 (Tues–Fri 8.30am–6pm & Sat 8.30am–5pm; 0299/372 155, www.ronaldschot.nl); one-day bike rental costs €6.50.
Day-trips from the city | Volendam, Marken and Edam | Edam | Arrival and information |
The Edam mermaid
A number of mermaid legends have evolved around the coastal towns of northern Holland, but Edam’s is the best. In 1403, two milkmaids were rowing across the lake to