Some time ago a poster wrote:

"If you go to the Alkmaar Cheese Market, get there early. The guidebooks say one hour early. We got there two hours early and got a good spot. By one hour early, the place was packed and all the good viewing spots were gone."

I have this vision of getting to Alkmaar at 8:00 AM and standing in place for two hours waiting for the cheese porters. Not good.

Any suggestions?

I did this for almost the 2 hours to get a spot for the London changing of the guards, and plan to do it as well for the Alkmaar Cheese Market. I can let you know after May 2 how it was. I think otherwise you can start out at a cafe sipping coffee and go get your spot when the crowd starts piling in.

It appears that you will be there at the same time as my wife and I.

Attending Queens Day, Amsterdam.. then Alkmaar, then Utrecht..

For us (so far) ...

Sat - Amsterdam (arrive)
Sun - Amsterdam
Mon - Scheveningen (spa)
Tue - Keukenhof & Leiden
Wed - Amsterdan (Queen's Day)
Thu - den Haag
Fri - Alkmaar

I was actually thinking of heading up to Texel or down to the Storm Surge Barrier on Saturday, the theory being that they may be slightly less crowded on the weekend than some place like Utrecht or Delft. I'm also tying to figure out the best time to schedule Rotterdam/Kinderdijk and a host of other places.

Perhaps we'll cross paths.

If you are going to Alkmaar on the Friday you could go across to Texel after that - maybe stay the night if you can find somewhere reasonable, but as it is a loooong weekend for the Dutch things may be full already.
How long are you staying at the spa? You could maybe combine Den Haag en Scheveningen in one trip - Scheveningnen is practically part of Den Haag anyway, then you could go to Rotterdam/Kinderdijk on the Thursday (or visit the Oud Ambachtenmarkt in my town )

hetismij,

Thanks for the advice, but I don't think it will work in our case.

We will probably spend roughly 3 hours in the spa. Additional time will be spent at the hotel, the pier, and the harbor. I suspect that after dinner we'll check out Madurodam. The Haag, on the other hand, seems to warrant the better part of a day with visits to the Ridderzaal, Maurithuis, and the Escher in Het Paleis Museum.

As for Alkmaar to Texel, I'll look into it but remember that we're traveling by rail with our Amsterdam B&B already booked for the duration of our stay. Overnight trips would mean paying for two rooms, not to mention lugging our luggage on the train (which, I guess, would at least give us something to sit on for our two hour wait for the cheese porters).

As for Oud Ambachtenmarkt, I heard somewhere that it was peppered with Brits. No?