Explore Noord-Holland
Stretching north from Amsterdam to the island of Texel, the province of Noord-Holland is largely rural, its polder landscapes of green, pancake-flat fields intercepted by hundreds of drainage canals and ditches, and its wide horizons only interrupted by the odd farmhouse or windmill. The province’s west coast is defended from the ocean by a long belt of sand dunes, which is itself shielded by long and broad sandy beaches, and it’s these that attract holidaying Netherlanders. Much of the east coast has been reclaimed from what was once the saltwater Zuider Zee and is now, after the construction of two complementary dykes, the freshwater Markermeer and IJsselmeer. Here, along this deeply indented coast, lies a string of old seaports which flourished from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century on the back of the sea trade with the Baltic.
Noord-Holland’s principal urban highlight is Haarlem, an easy-going town with more than its fair share of Golden Age buildings, the province’s best art gallery, and ready access to some wild stretches of dune and beach in the Nationaal Park Zuid-Kennemerland. Northeast of the capital, the old Zuider Zee ports of Marken, Volendam and Edam are a bit touristy in summer, but have considerable charm if you visit off-season. Further north, Hoorn and Enkhuizen were once major Zuider Zee ports, and their historic wealth is reflected in a scattering of handsome old buildings. Enkhuizen, in particular, is very attractive and has one of the country’s best open-air museums, the Zuiderzeemuseum. A short train ride north of Amsterdam is the Zaanstad conurbation, whose chief attraction is the antique windmills and canals of Zaanse Schans. Further up the line, the pleasant provincial town of Alkmaar has a much-touted summer cheese market, and makes a good base for exploring two protected coastal zones, the Noordhollands Duinreservaat (North Holland Dune Reserve) and the Schoorlse Duinen Nationaalpark. Beyond, in the far north of the province, the island of Texel is the most accessible of the Waddenzee islands. It can get crowded in summer, but don’t be put off: with a bit of walking – or cycling – you can easily find some solitude.
Most of Noord-Holland is located north of Amsterdam, though the borders of the province also dip round the city, taking in an area known as Het Gooi, where the highlights are the small town of Muiden with its castle and the old fortified town of Naarden.
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Noordhollands Duinreservaat and Schoorlse Duinen Nationaalpark
Noordhollands Duinreservaat and Schoorlse Duinen Nationaalpark
Out towards the coast, 10km northwest of Alkmaar and beyond the artists’ retreat of Bergen, the village of Bergen-aan-Zee marks the northerly limit of the Noordhollands Duinreservaat (North Holland Dune Reserve), whose bumpy sand dunes stretch north from the suburbs of IJmuiden, and the southern boundary of the Schoorlse Duinen Nationaalpark (Schoorl Dunes National Park), where a band of sweeping, wooded dunes, up to 5km wide, extends north as far as Camperduin – one of the widest undeveloped portions of the whole Dutch coastline. The dune reserve and the national park are both crisscrossed by footpaths and cycling trails, but the most lauded is the well-signposted, 42km-long De Brede Duinen route that takes cyclists on a loop through Alkmaar, Bergen, Bergen-aan-Zee, Schoorl and Camperduin, passing the highest of the national park’s sand dunes (54m) on the way. Both Bergen and Alkmaar tourist offices sell detailed maps of local hiking and cycling routes but if you just want a taster of the landscape, there’s a carpark and and access to marked trails halfway between Bergen and Bergen-aan-Zee on Uilenvangersweg.
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How the Zuider Zee became the IJsselmeer
How the Zuider Zee became the IJsselmeer
The towns and villages that string along the east coast of Noord-Holland flourished during Amsterdam’s Golden Age, their economies buoyed up by shipbuilding, the Baltic Sea trade and the demand for herring. They had access to the open sea via the waters of the Zuider Zee (Southern Sea) and, to the north, the connecting Waddenzee (Mud Sea). The business was immensely profitable and its proceeds built a string of prosperous seaports – most notably Volendam, Hoorn and Enkhuizen – and nourished market towns like Edam, while the Zuider Zee itself supported a batch of fishing villages such as Marken and Urk. In the eighteenth century, however, the Baltic trade declined and the harbours silted up, leaving the ports economically stranded.
The Zuider Zee continued to provide a livelihood for local fishermen, but most of the country was more concerned by the danger of flooding it posed, as time and again storms and high tides combined to breach the east coast’s defences. The first plan to seal off and reclaim the Zuider Zee was proposed in 1667, but the rotating-turret windmills that then provided the most efficient way of drying the land were insufficient for the task and matters were delayed until suitable technology arrived – in the form of the steam-driven pump. In 1891, Cornelis Lely (1854–1929) proposed a retaining dyke and his plans were finally put into effect after devastating floods hit the area in 1916. Work began on this dyke, the Afsluitdijk, in 1920 and, on May 28, 1932, the last gap in it was closed and the Zuider Zee simply ceased to exist, replaced by the freshwater IJsselmeer.
The original plan was to reclaim all the land protected by the Afsluitdijk, turning it into farmland for settlers from the country’s overcrowded cities, starting with three large-scale land-reclamation schemes that were completed over the next forty years: the Noordoostpolder in 1942 (480 square kilometres), Oostelijk Flevoland in 1957 (540 square kilometres) and Zuidelijk Flevoland in 1968 (440 square kilometres). In addition, a second, complementary dyke linking Enkhuizen with Lelystad was finished in 1976, thereby creating lake Markermeer – a necessary prelude to the draining of another stretch of the IJsselmeer. The engineers licked their contractual lips, but they were out of sync with the majority of the population, who were now opposed to any further draining of the lake. Partly as a result, the grand plan was abandoned and, after much governmental huffing and puffing, the Markermeer was left alone and thus most of the old Zuider Zee remained water.
There were many economic benefits to be had in the closing of the Zuider Zee, not least great chunks of new and fertile farmland, while the roads that were built along the top of the two main retaining dykes brought Noord-Holland within twenty minutes’ drive of Friesland. The price was the demise of the old Zuider Zee fishing fleet, and today these placid, steel-grey lakes are popular with day-tripping Amsterdammers, who come here in their droves to sail boats, observe the waterfowl, and visit a string of dinky towns and villages that pretty much rely on tourism to survive. These begin on the coast just a few kilometres north of Amsterdam with the picturesque old fishing village of Marken and the former seaport of Volendam, just up the coast. From here, it’s a couple of kilometres further to Edam, the pick of the local bunch, a small and infinitely pretty little town of narrow canals and handsome old houses.
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Alkmaar's cheese market
Alkmaar's cheese market
Cheese has been sold on Alkmaar’s main square since the 1300s, and although it’s no longer a serious commercial concern, the kaasmarkt (cheese market; Fri 10am–12.30pm, from the first Friday in April to the first Friday in Sept) continues to pull the crowds – so get there early if you want a good view. The ceremony starts with the buyers sniffing, crumbling, and finally tasting each cheese, followed by intensive bartering. Once a deal has been concluded, the cheeses – golden discs of Gouda mainly, laid out in rows and piles on the square – are borne away on ornamental carriers by groups of four porters (kaasdragers) for weighing. The porters wear white trousers and shirt plus a black hat whose coloured bands – green, blue, red or yellow – represent the four companies that comprise the cheese porters’ guild. Payment for the cheeses, tradition has it, takes place in the cafés around the square.
