We both share a love of cheese and after doing some research it was a unanimous decision to visit Gouda.
The main day to visit Gouda on is Thursday as its market day and there is a lot going on. We stayed in an Aire which is located within one of the carparks and only a 5 minute walk to market square. The Aire has all services and only costs 8 euros for 24 hours and some places have free electric, although these were already taken by then!
On Wednesday the town was quite quiet which gave us the opportunity to get our bearings and go and see all the other sights on offer.
St John’s church is a magnificent sight and is a large Gothic church with 72 massive stained glass windows, no other church in the world has as much 16th century stained glass. The church is UNESCO listed for this reason. Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside so if you fancy it you will have to go and see for yourself.
Old City Hall takes centre stage, right in the middle of the market square. This magnificent Gothic city hall was built in around 1450.
The Waag (weigh house) is now the tourist information office and cheese museum. It was built in 1667 and was used for weighing goods (especially cheese) to levy taxes.
There are many cheese shops to wander around and try all the different flavours available.
Gouda is also the home of the Syrup Waffle. We bought a pack of these sweet treats and had them with a coffee.
The cheese market was entertaining and gave us an insight into how cheese was sold in the past. A price was agreed by slapping hands and then the cheese loaded onto the horse and carts.
There is also a good selection of traditional market stalls where you can buy fruit, vegetables, bread etc along with a lot of local cheese producers selling their products.
We bought 4 different types of Gouda and looking forward to trying them over the next couple of months.
