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the north of Edam to get to their cows, when they spied a mermaid, whom they agreed must have been washed up over the sea dyke during a storm. Later, they returned to fish the mermaid out of the lake and, in the way of such things, blushes were saved all round by the layer of seaweed and moss protecting the creature’s modesty. Back in town, the mermaid slipped into a dress willingly enough and soon picked up all the necessary domestic and devotional skills, learning how to spin, cook and kiss the crucifix, though some versions of the legend feature a less obliging mermaid who didn’t take kindly to her chores and was forever trying to escape. The mermaid is supposed to have lived in Edam for fifteen years and one of the now-demolished town gates was decorated with a mermaid statue in her memory. More important was the municipal subtext; as the legend confirmed, the women of Edam were so kind and the town so pleasant that even a slippery siren was prepared to hole up here.

Day-trips from the city | Volendam, Marken and Edam | Edam |

The Town

At the heart of Edam is Damplein, a pint-sized main square alongside which an elongated, humpbacked bridge vaults the Voorhaven canal, which now connects the town with the Markermeer and formerly linked it to the Zuider Zee. The bridge stopped the canal flooding the town, which occurred with depressing regularity, but local shipbuilders hated the thing as it restricted navigation, and on several occasions they launched night-time raids to break it down, though eventually they bowed to the will of the local council.

Facing the bridge is the Edams Museum (April–Oct Tues–Sun 10am–4.30pm; €3; www.edamsmuseum.nl), which occupies an attractive old house whose crow-stepped gables date back to 1530. Inside, a series of cramped and narrow rooms holds a modest display on the history of the town as well as an assortment of local bygones, including a couple of splendid box-beds. The museum’s pride and joy is, however, its floating cellar, supposedly built by a retired sea captain who couldn’t bear the thought of sleeping on dry land, but actually it was constructed to stop the house from flooding.

Edam’s eighteenth-century Stadhuis stands on Damplein, a severe Louis XIV-style structure whose plain symmetries culminate in a squat little tower. The ground floor of the Stadhuis is home to the VVV (see "Arrival and information"). Upstairs is the second part of the Edams Museum (same times & ticket), comprising a handful of old Dutch paintings; the most curious is the portrait of Trijntje Kever (1616–33), a local girl who grew to over 2.5m tall – displayed in front of the portrait is a pair of her specially made shoes.

From Damplein, it’s a short walk to the rambling Grote Kerk (April–Oct daily 2–4.30pm; free), on the edge of the fields to the north of town. This is the largest three-ridged church in Europe, a handsome, largely Gothic structure whose strong lines are disturbed by the almost comically stubby spire, which was shortened to its present height after lightning started a fire in 1602. The church interior is distinguished by its magnificent stained-glass windows – which date from the early seventeenth century and sport both heraldic designs and historical scenes – and by its whopping organ.

Stroll back from the church along Matthijs Tinxgracht, just to the west of Grote Kerkstraat, and you soon reach the Kaasmarkt, site of the summer cheese market (July to mid-Aug Wed 10.30am–12.30pm). It’s a good deal humbler than Alkmaar’s, but follows the same format, with the cheeses laid out in rows before buyers sample them. Once a cheese has been purchased, the cheese porters, dressed in traditional white costumes and straw boaters, spring into action, carrying them off on their gondola-like trays. Overlooking the market is the Kaaswaag (Cheese Weighing House), whose decorative panels feature the town’s coat of arms, a bull on a red field with three stars. From the Kaasmarkt, it’s a couple of hundred metres south to the fifteenth-century Speeltoren, an elegant, pinnacled tower that is all that remains