Leiden Grand Extravaganza!

2009 Grand Extravaganza
Cheeses and Dunes

IAMSE invites all participants of the 2009 Annual Meeting and especially the attending members of the Slice of Life community to join us at a spectacular Grand Extravaganza program on Friday July 3.

At 13.30 hr we leave with two luxury coaches from the LUMC conference site. A box lunch will be provided on board for your convenience. We will travel along the highway to Alkmaar, an old city west of Amsterdam. The name Alkmaar was first recorded in the tenth-century, and in 1254 Count Floris V granted Alkmaar a town charter. Located as it was at a meeting of waterways, Alkmaar charged tolls and levied duties on the transshipment of goods. Because of its markets and commerce, Alkmaar acquired a position as a centre. It is known that the city of Alkmaar had a weighing house for cheese as early as 1365. Since 1939, Alkmaar has been the only place in the Netherlands to maintain the cheese market tradition in this form. Every year, on 22 Friday mornings from mid-April to mid-September, the market takes place on the Waagplein. Nowadays, Alkmaar has grown into the educational centre of the region, with all types of advanced, secondary, and higher education. With its cheese market and historic inner city, Alkmaar is a draw for tourists and the region’s centre for culture, sport and nightlife.

The bus will drop us in the centre of town, where you are free to spend some time on your own. You can visit the City Museum, the Dutch Cheese Museum, the Dutch Stove Museum or the Boom National Beer Museum. But also lots of shops, little restaurants and bars are available for your convenience. Just enjoy the inner city and breathe the Dutch city life of centuries ago.

At 16.45 hr we gather together to ship in at one of the canal boats of Rederij Grachtenrondvaart Alkmaar for a canal trip through Alkmaar. This is a nice and exiting way to explore the city from the waterfront. Together with a captain and a guide we will sail 45 minutes through Alkmaar. In this time we will see the most beautiful places of the city and we will come across 22 very low bridges. This will make the trip an experience you will never forget.

When the boat tour comes to an end, we depart by bus to Katwijk, a little fishermen’s village near to Leiden which is located in the middle of the dunes. There we will have diner on the beach at restaurant De Zwaan at 19.00 hr. Afterwards there will be some time for a romantically walk on the beach, before we leave for Leiden at 22.30 hrs.

Bring some comfortable clothes, an umbrella if raining and especially don’t forget your cameras!

You must pre-register for this special event and note that availability is limited!!