19/2/15
We hitched a ride in the Jerry mobile again today, this time it is heading to Gouda (pronounced How-da, fyi)
The kids and I hopped out in the city center and were immediately swept into the winding bustling shopping streets. And there were my favourite Dutch stores--"how I've missed you Zeeman and Kruitvat! Van Haren you darling,cute spring shoes!" In and out we wandered, scoring little treats like our favourite candies and big finds like the spangly dresses for our upcoming Mo-town choir concert--3 dresses, 1 wig, and a dog toy (don't ask!) for, drumroll please...3 euros!! We arrived in the Markt Square eventually, which has a great Waag (w is a v) a weighing house for the cheese. these days it is a tourist info spot, with a cheese museum on the second floor, which reopens in Apri when the tourists arrive. we walked around the Stadhuis, which is the city hall. This one is the oldest in the Netherlands and was built in 1450! The interior is a venue for meetings,weddings,etc and you can walk around. The wedding room has tapestry walls. on the outside of the building is a carillon with mechanical puppets that pop out a depict the granting of the city charter in 1278==still amazes me just How OLD Europe is! The Thursday markt was going on and we picked up some great fresh spices for our new recipes and enjoyed browsing around. We ate lunch at Le Place, in a sunny table in the window looking out on the square. The wind is quite strong so it was nice to get inside. After lunch we do more walking, down to the harbor and over to the Molen De Roude Leeuw (Red Lion Windmill). There are two windmills in the city centre, one is a private home (how cool, I would love to live there!) and the Red Lion had closed at 14, which was not noted in the guidebook-we are annoyed. One nice thing is all the tea shops around, Danny picks up a couple of new ones to try, Lavendar Mate and knibble,knabble,knubble-based on the Hansel and Gretel story, nibbble,nibble little mouse-remember?! this one is fruity smeeling. He is excited to get home and brew some up. We finish up at Hema-with a stop in the cafe for koffie happy hour-1euro for a small koffie and a pastry from 16-18; unsurprisingly the place is crawling with senior citizens-the Dutch oldsters love a good bargain too I guess! thyen its a good brisk walk back to the office where Jerry has his meeting and a good long ride home. Not the most thrilling day trip, but we had fun and got out of the house!
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| Stadhuis in Gouda |
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| Waag |
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| carillon |
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| the King is in his counting house... |
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| the girls in the wedding room, note the tapestry walls |
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| cool art made out of paper at a gallery we visited |
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Lazurus gate, originally was on a leper hospital.
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| a famous Gouda resident |
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| love those canals! |
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| yeah, just park next to the windmill and come on in! |
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