Gouda and Cousins
Trip Start
Apr 03, 2009
1
4
12
Trip End
Apr 15, 2009
Gouda,
Zuid-Holland,
Netherlands
Monday, April 6, 2009
Tonny and Peter and Mum arrived and admired our spacious abode. After coffee and cakes, Tonny and Peter left to sort out some building work they were having done. The rest of us loaded into the car and headed for Gouda to see what it had to offer.
The first sign to the town centre directed us into an industrial estate. The second led us to a square with parking. We wandered up the street to the VVV (tourist information), who, after some debate, informed us that this was not Gouda, rather a small town called Haastrecht
A big fish.
. Nick claimed to have known all along. Weīre not convinced. How come he didnīt mention it before?Anyway, we eventually found our way to Gouda and parked in a carpark on the edge of town. We walked in to the town centre, which is old and suitably Dutch. The houses and shops were beautiful and in the traditional style. The stadthuis in the centre is an imposing building with blue spires and a hundred windows with red shutters. It stands in the market square, although there was no market happening today.
Dutch shop/keepers like to have large signs in the shape of models outside their shops. The kids wanted their picture taken with a six foot fish, while Nick tried to disown us. Then Nick got into the spirit of the thing and had his picture taken with a large troll.
We stopped for a coffee at the Stroopwaffel Bakkerij. Usually, you can see the stroopwaffels being made, but this week the baker was on holiday, so we had to make do with coffee.
We got back to the car to discover we had a parking ticket. We hadnīt paid for parking because we hadnīt managed to find a machine to put money into
Kids in Gouda.
. I think if Gouda city council wants 61 euros off us, when they hid the parking meters in the first place, then they can chase us to England to collect it.We headed north to my cousinsī house. Tino and Hellen have two boys, Ivo and Rick, and my other cousin GJ spends a lot of time at their house too. We had a lovely afternoon talking and eating (as you do in Holland). The kids bonded reasonably well with their cousins by getting covered in sand and dripping ice lollies down themselves to aid the process of gluing the sand to their clothes.
We left around the time the kids starting rolling tiredly on the sofa. Somehow we negotiated the Dutch road system and left Mum at the right house, before taking the sleepy children home.
