Wandering Through Northern Europe – A Glorious Day in Gouda

June 9 – A Glorious Day in Gouda

Today the sun is shining and it’s a perfect day for my trip to Gouda and their weekly cheese market. Gouda features a number of picturesque canals, waterways and even it’s very own working windmill. But first the cheese market!

Markt Square is nestled between Gouda’s beautiful city hall and the weighing house. There is a plethora of goods on offer but cheese is definitely the star. The cheese wheels are displayed in the centre of the square – bright shades of yellow and orange mingle together and the air is ripe with the aroma of cheese. It’s like the second hand marijuana smoke in Amsterdam. All you need is a piece of fresh bread or a cracker and a pint of beer to taste it.

There is a bit of a carnival atmosphere with photo ops with local girls in costumes, a farm couple with a horse and buggy and a man dressed in a very loud yellow suit with red shoes who gets into the cheese buying action when he’s not hamming it up for the crowd. 

Buyers in white coats negotiate with local farmers to buy their huge wheels of cheese. Core samples are taken to confirm smell, texture, taste, etc. Then the negotiations begin; they slap hands as they name a price. The slapping goes back and forth until they can agree on a price per kilo at which point they shake hands. Once they agree, the farmer’s cheese is taken to the weighing house to determine total weight and the final payment owing. A good cheese would sell for around 6-7 euros/kg but the market is restricted to buyers from the Vergeer company. Consumers can buy cheese at one of the many market stands. Interesting and fun to watch. Edam is a town which has a cheese named after it but Gouda is all about cheese!

Gouda City Hall stands proudly in the centre of the Markt square and is a landmark of the city. The iconic building has a rich history. Constructed in 1448, the town hall is one of the oldest in the Netherlands. The front façade of the building features a series of pointed towers, spikes and arched windows and also has a myriad of stone statues of various important people from Dutch history. On either side of the town hall there is a series of bell chimes that ring on the hour.

The Gouda Stadhuis has served as a courtroom, livestock market and, of course, the Center of the city’s government. On the right of the entrance is a small balcony (the pilory) where convicted petty criminals used to stand for the day while people threw things at them as their punishment.

There is also a large balcony overlooking market square. This was once where the scaffold was located for more serious punishments. When the young princess and future queen Wilhelmina was coming to town she needed an appropriate location from which she could wave to her peeps. The pillory was too small so they knocked out a couple windows where the scaffold had been and built a new balcony for her. Perfect for a bird’s eye view of the goings on. 

On the other side of the square is the weighing house (Goudse Waag) which today also doubles as a tourist shop with an information kiosk. 

The cheese market is done by 12:30 and then the singing starts. A group of men sing sea shanties and other folk songs to the delight of the gathered crowd. Even though it’s all in Dutch I recognize Haul Away Joe!

Time for a bit more exploring. Since the centre of Gouda is encircled by canals wandering along the canals seemed a great way to see the city and its wonderful architecture. I wanted to check out the Molen De Roode Leeuw and serendipitously I spy it on my meanders.  The Red Lion Windmill is a working mill that was constructed in 1727 and has been restored in recent decades.

Also while wandering I pass the Church of St. John and the Gouwekerk. It’s too nice a day to be inside so I skip the tours of their interiors and enjoy the beautiful weather. There’s also lots of street art to enjoy maybe to celebrate the 750th anniversary?

After a bit of exploring, I decided to hop the train back to Den Haag to explore a bit more there as tomorrow I’m headed back to Amsterdam. 

Exploring the market and it’s wide range of street art was interesting and I even stumbled across Chinatown.

Next up was the Noordeinde Palace; one of the three official palaces of the Dutch royal family. It has been the official workplace of King Willem-Alexander since 2013.

Continuing along, I find the Peace Palace; an international law administrative building housing the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague Academy of International Law and the Peace Palace Library.

The Palace officially opened on 28 August 1913, and was originally built to provide a home for the Permanent Court of Arbitration, a court created to end war by the Hague Convention of 1899. Scottish-American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie contributed $1.5 million USD to build the Peace Palace. While it was impossible to tour the palace or the grounds there was an interesting multimedia presentation on the past, present and future. 

Outside is the Imagine Peace Wish Tree where people can write down their wishes and hang them on the tree. Unfortunately, it was the end of a busy day and I didn’t get to contribute to this initiative but it would have been to see an end to the war in Ukraine. 

Today I had the chance to see the transit police in action. If you forget to register your klipkaart or buy a ticket and you get caught it’s a €42 fine. They boarded trains and trams a couple times when i was riding them before but today was the first time they caught anyone. Supposedly no questions asked but I did witness a cute young señorita from Barcelona talk herself out of the fine. She tried quite hard at it and she was lucky that the officer in question was a young man.  Other people were not so lucky!

After a busy day, it’s back to the hotel for a nice Caesar salad for dinner with a glass of wine. Tomorrow is another day and adventures await…