There's more than cheese in Edam!

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a vacation home in a faraway place called Edam, The Netherlands. Now this vacation home had two-bedrooms, one of which featured a carpeted on-suite. There was a kitchen, and yes, it had high-quality composite countertops, an American-style fridge-freezer, a fully electric oven and a brand-name espresso machine built right into the cabinetry. And the visitors to this accommodation all thought to themselves, "I can just stay here in the vacation home, because it's no nice." But then, like gently awaking from a pleasant dream on a Sunday at 10:00AM, they'd remember why they'd come to Edam in the first place. They wanted learn about and sample the magnificent cheese to which the town so generously lends its name. And that's what they would do: exploring the lanes in the old cheese quarter, attending a class to understand the different traditional methods by which Edam was produces, sitting on a park bench and reflecting on how a dairy product and a place can be so inextricably linked. Now you might think I've told you a some whimsical fairy tale, someone's grandmother's gilded nostalgic fantasy of Benelux folklore. But that is not the case. Everything I've just told you is real. Yes, there is still a little magic left in our world if you know where to look.