A is for Alkmaar

Not the Cheese Market was the name of the festival and speaking as one who never saw any cheese, I can guarantee the authenticity of that name. Alkmaar is just 25 minutes from Amsterdam and in some ways it bears some similarities yet in some other ways it had a way all of its own.

For some reason I got a lot of gifts through the window. Here is a bunch of wild flowers from genuine Alkmaar fields.

She came baring gifts including this one of an Alkmaar emblem, just to prove that there is a cheese market that goes on somewhere in town.

Check these artworks out.

And this is my friend who was born in Chile but lived most of her life in Holland, we had a great conversation about being at the margins of society and what it is like to feel like an observer. In fact, that was the theme of the day, observations.

Mean tats - Alkmaar styles

And in case real flowers aren't your style, here are some that will last a little longer.





These two are brother and sister, on holiday here but both on opposing windows, one of them sees north, one of them sees south. Imagine what it will be like when they grow up a little.

So this jigsaw turns up from my window, turns out it's from Yolanda who lives in Haarlem. Backtrack here a little bit. Haarlem is about 15 minutes south of Alkmaar and was just a name on a map that I randomly chose to stay on the way here, so I booked into the local youth hostel. Yolanda has worked there for 5 years (from memory) since training as a goldsmith so we had a conversation about what it is to make things and stop making things and what you do with that energy. Everyone has that creative energy I suppose, we just find different things to channel it into.

Then this turns up, delivered by Renate who also works at the hostel. There is one piece missing, I don't think it was intentional but it seems significant since Yolanda was not able to be there in person. So this is puzzle is a kind of tardas, a portal to another place.