Gouda Holland

Annabelle and I got to tag along with Andy to Gouda, Holland for a long weekend.  Andy needed to go there for work, yet again, so decided to take us along.  After his first trip to Gouda he raved about how much he thought I would like the city, so fortunately got to see it with my own eyes.

We flew into Amsterdam and had to take a train into Gouda.  When we were about 15 minutes outside of the city the train stopped and we sat on the tracks for awhile.  The conductor kept coming on the intercom, speaking in Dutch, notifying us of the issues.  After sitting for about 25 minutes we noticed people getting off the train and fortunately asked some young girls if they spoke English and what the deal was.  They had sent a new train because ours had broken down.  Glad we had NO clue what was being said the whole time we were on there.  

Other than our arrival and departure hiccups, we loved it!  It is such a quaint, picturesque city.  I think having already been to Amsterdam, a much larger scaled Gouda, made me appreciate the uniqueness of the city.  Canals wind themselves through the city that bikers rule and once again felt more at ease with the amount of people that spoke English and ability to get around.  Andy had to work during the days, so Annabelle and I spent our days exploring the town and snacking our way through…on cheese of course.  Gouda cheese represents about 60% of the Dutch cheese production and is pronounced "How-da"…FYI.

Their food was delicious and even got a true Mexican meal that included guac and a margarita.  A cuisine we cannot find anywhere in Porto!  We stayed right by the Market Square, the town's main attraction, so spent our days exploring the market, visiting the Waag House (where they would weigh the goods to levy taxes), Church of St. John (famous for its stained glass windows created in 1530), Stadhuis (oldest Gothic city hall in the Netherlands, built in 1450) and a little shopping of course.

We had a close call getting to the airport on time as Andy thought our flight left an hour later than it really did.  As we were awaiting our first train Andy realized that our flight in fact left in an two hours instead of three.  Thankfully after sprinting through the airport with a sleeping Annabelle in arms, our flight was delayed a few hours and we had plenty of time!!

And we are off…this girl loves to fly!  Glad someone does :)

Our day at the market.  Every Thursday from spring to summer, the square is filled with vendors selling a variety of goods, but the coolest thing was seeing the men actually sell the cheese.  The cheese is brought in weighed, tested for quality and then sold (as shown above).  The gentleman on the right got is cheese wheels loaded them up in his cart and rode away on his horse.

Beautiful gardens set between people's homes throughout the city.

Dinner out…can't seem to get a good pic of the 3 of us anymore…so this will do.