Explore Alkmaar on foot

Alkmaar is known as a real Dutch cheese city, but has more to offer. For example, the historic city center, where there are no fewer than 399 national monuments. This walk takes you through a part of this monumental and cozy center.

The route is short, but could take a long time. Not only because you want to take the time to admire the many monumental buildings, but also because you will pass a number of nice museums. Such as the Beatles Museum, where you will find the largest private collection about this popular group. Where the museum owner started in a living room, he now has an area of more than 1500 square meters at his disposal to display unique items about the Fab Four from Liverpool. No Beatles museum can rival the items on display here.   

On the Houttil you will pass a seventeenth-century building that once housed the former De Boom brewery. Now you will find the Dutch Beer Museum De Boom here. Here you will gain insight into the history of beer and the ancient brewing process. For example, pure dune water was shipped in barrels to the Alkmaar breweries for the beer. The canal water was not suitable for this, as people relieved themselves here.

On the Voordam you walk over a former dike that was built in the fifteenth century to expand Alkmaar. On the Clarissenbolwerk you will pass the Molen van Piet, a corn mill dating from 1769. In 1884, the mill, originally called Molen de Groot, was bought by Cornelis Piet. The mill is still owned by this family.

On the church square you walk past the monumental Grote or Sint-Laurenskerk. This church from the sixteenth century was built on the spot where, according to a first mention, a wooden church stood as early as the tenth century.