The cheese is stacked up on the town square before being weighed Steve Vidler

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France may be the obvious candidate for a weekend away, but for something a little more original, Holland is just as accessible.

Granted, the ferry ride may be longer (seven-and-a-half hours longer, to be precise), but choose an overnight trip and you won’t lose any time at all. The midnight crossing from Harwich will have you in the Hook of Holland for breakfast the next day.

And yes, in general, Dutch food isn’t really up there with the French scene (­unless you’re a fan of chips with mayonnaise and herring sarnies). But one thing they do well is cheese – and Alkmaar, 40 minutes north of Amsterdam, is dairy central.

Not only does it hold its own against the capital in the looks department – a ring of dinky canals with 17th-century buildings clustered higgledy-piggledy along them – but its status as cheese capital of the Netherlands means that every Friday morning from April to September, the main square is commandeered by men in straw boaters with huge wheels of gouda hoisted on sleighs round their necks, to be stacked up, inspected and weighed on the cobbles.

The market’s been going since 1593, though these days it’s more of a ­touristy reconstruction than the real deal (the gouda’s stuffed back in the lorries to be brought back the following week). But the edge of the square is ringed by stalls shifting their own stuff, and half the shops in town (Alkmaar is second only to Amsterdam in the Dutch ­retail stakes) are cheese ­specialists, too.

The best thing about Holland is how teeny it is, so you can cover a lot of ground in a weekend. East of ­Alkmaar lies the Beemster Polder system – classic Dutch landscapes of pancake-flat fields livened up by cows, windmills, and cutesy ­villages like De Rijp, where the 17th-century houses (and their glossy mag-worthy ­interiors) have earned it the title of “finest village in Holland”.

Go west from Alkmaar, meanwhile, and in about 15 minutes you’ll hit the coast at the duney Egmond aan Zee. Summer is mussels ­season, and the restaurant menus have countless takes on them – with lemon, with chilli, with a special house recipe. Who needs brioche, anyway?

SORT IT

"Every Friday, the square is commandeered by men in straw boaters with huge wheels of gouda hoisted on sleighs round their neck"

Get there: Stena Line has two daily crossings from Harwich to Hook of Holland. Taking a car costs from £81 per ­person, including cabin, WWW.stenaline.co.uk

Where to stay

Minted: Pakhuys Hotel

Modern canalside rooms in an ancient warehouse. Doubles from £86, WWW.pakhuys.nl

Skinted: B&B Alkmaar

En suite room in a house in the town centre. From £52, www.bedandbreakfastalkmaar.com

More info:

See www.holland.com

See our article on the Pas-de-Calais - an undiscovered foodie paradise - here