It was an easy train ride. A very pretty train ride, too.
We took the train about 50 minutes south of the city to the beautiful town of Gouda (which they pronounce more like “HOW-dah”). The home of Dave’s favorite cheese.
Here we visited the stunning Sint-Janskerk (St. John’s Church) with some 60 massive stained glass windows dating back to 1555. They were taken down and hidden during WWII, buried in sand dunes on the coast!
Then we toured a Gouda cheese facility (run by the Vergeer cheese company based on the branding) and the Kamphuisen “siroopwafel” factory — featuring a treacle-based syrup center based on a recipe that pre-dates the better known “stroopwafels”.
Like most of the rest of the Netherlands, there are canals everywhere…
Love how pretty all the city streets are.
From inside the Sint-Janskerk. So many gorgeous stained glass windows inside.
More cheese. This was a lunch special on the town square: a sliced gouda sandwich, beer and gouda cheese soup, and a deep fried gouda croquette. It was a lot of food.
I didn’t take a lot of photos in the Gouda factory tour. But at the end is a very elegant cheese tasting experience, where you learn the flavor differences between young and old Gouda.
I can’t remember which is which…except there’s one there with herbs.
From the Siroopwafel factory. It was a cool (and mesmerizing) operation to watch from above.
