Every morning around 9:30, the first stall flips open on the Albert Cuypstraat. This has been the case since 1905, when the municipality decided that the proliferation of illegal street trading in De Pijp had better be organized. Since then, the market has grown into the largest day market in Europe: 1.5 kilometers long, more than 260 stalls side by side, six days a week.
What you'll find here? Almost everything. Fresh fruits and vegetables from local and international suppliers, Dutch artisan cheeses that visitors have been superlative about for decades, Dutch new herring straight from the stall, and fresh stroopwafels they bake in front of your nose. That smell alone is a reason to come. Flowers and plants in every color, fabrics and clothes for those who know what they are looking for, typical Dutch products for those who want to take something home. The market has it all, without being complicated about it.
The street itself is wide enough for a double row of stalls and a stream of people shuffling slowly from the Ferdinand Bolstraat toward the Van Woustraat. Or the other way around. There is no roof, no hall, no climate control. Just outside, on the street, as it always was. That's what gives the market its character. On busy Saturdays, you feel how De Pijp lives: neighbors running into each other, students looking for the cheapest apples, people who have been buying from the same cheesemonger for years.
Fresh syrup waffles straight from the stall are one of those little things that make life in this city just a little better.
Accessible via the North-South line or streetcar lines 4 and 24, so you really don't have an excuse not to go. The market is open Monday through Saturday. Come early if you like the quiet, come late if you like the chaos. But come. Because fresh syrup waffles straight from the stall are one of those little things that make life in this city just a little bit better.