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We're visiting the Dutch city of Gouda.
You might think of it as "Gooda", as in Gouda cheese for which they are very famous, but
the Dutch say it differently.
I can try and tell you, it's "Gouda."
It's another one of the very pretty small cities of the Netherlands, and we'll have
a quick look in this brief practical guide to seeing the highlights of Gouda.
It has some fine examples of that special Dutch feature of the reflecting canals lined
by flowers and pedestrian lanes.
But here we've got several of these charming neighborhoods we'll show you in the video,
and the important building where the cheese was weighed on the main town square.
An aerial view from Google Earth shows that Weighing House, the Waag, and as we look around
the town we'll see the main town square with the big church on one side and the Town Hall
in the middle with the historic center spread all around.
We'll take a little walk in the heart of town and then stroll along that long canal down
towards the harbor for a different viewpoint starting in the town center.
The Weighing House, or Waag, has for centuries been a central point in town where the all-important
cheese was weighed and deals were made.
It now contains the Tourist Information Center and the Cheese and Crafts Museum where you
can taste and purchase a variety of cheeses.
The Markt, or marketplace, is the central plaza in the heart of town, home to countless
pubs, restaurants and cozy sidewalk cafes.
During my visit they were just setting up for a carnival, which slightly disrupted the
visual beauty of the plaza.
At least it'll be fun for the local kids.
Well, here's how it would look on a normal day, thanks to photos from the Tourist Information
and from Google Earth.
The exquisitely proportioned Stadhuys, or City Hall, is a gem of late Gothic and early
Renaissance architecture, dating from 1449-59.
The traditional cheese market takes place in the plaza every Thursday mornings 10 AM
till 1230 from April through the end of August.
I missed it but we can see how it looks thanks to pictures from the Visitor Information Center,
and we have video of the similar cheese market in Alkmaar that you can find in our collection.
The street alongside the marketplace is one of the busiest in town with lots of shops,
and especially the restaurants and bars and cafés – usually buzzing with people.
One block away, Groote Kerk, or Great Church, also called Saint John Church, was founded
in 1485 and rebuilt after a fire in 1562.
The round-arched arcades are borne by 36 pillars supporting the lofty barrel-vaulted ceiling
of dark wood.
It is the longest church in the Netherlands, at 123 meters.
Regular concerts are performed by the famous organ.
A superb example of the architecture of·
the later Middle Ages, famous for its 72 stained glass windows which were made between 1530
and 1603, considered the most significant stained glass collection in the Netherlands.
Named after John the Baptist, who is the patron saint of the city.
Our walking route, starting at the train station and down to that central market square, into
the church, then we'll continue along a beautiful canal down to the harbor, and then circling
back around in a complete round trip walking tour of the city, and ending up back at the
train station.
Now we continue along the Westhaven canal.
You can easily walk along this splendid canal from the town center, only 600 meters distance
- it'll take you about five minutes - down to the historic harbor where you will find
clippers, barges and sailing vessels lying majestically alongside each other in the Museum
Harbor, and most of these are still lived in.
In the Middle Ages, due to its central location, the town offered passage to ships en-route
to Amsterdam and Flanders.
After the 15th century, Gouda's role in international shipping went into decline.
Walking back towards the center from the harbor, you'll see another historic site – it's
a windmill, very characteristic of the Netherlands.
We're taking a circular route through town, walking along yet another beautiful canal,
observing all these bicycles going back and forth.
You can actually rent a bicycle here if you'd like to peddle around in town or even extend
out to some of the surrounding areas.
This route to the harbor, and then returning along a few of the less traveled back lanes,
gets you off the beaten track.
It's an easy stroll that doesn't take much time, and this route can bring you past another
few blocks of shopping.
Here you can see a benefit of being here when the cheese market is not on – you will not
see very many other tourists.
Then passing along a few residential blocks with their old-fashioned buildings.
It's nice to get away from the historic highlights for a while and into a neighborhood that's
more for locals.
It's quiet and peaceful over here.
Then you will come around the bend and find what is perhaps the prettiest of the canal
scenes in town along what's called the Turfmarkt.
Turf was that peat, or combustible decaying soil that was very important to the old Dutch
for cooking and heating their homes, much like in Ireland and elsewhere in the north
of Europe.
This route takes us back to the center at the marketplace.
There's a lovely block behind the market square.
We can have a peek at it showing that very special Dutch combination of shop fronts along
a pedestrian lane next to a charming little canal – circles on the map and next to it
is the new market, a modern little shopping mall.
Perhaps you've noticed how many bricks there are in the city.
The buildings and the roads are largely made of bricks.
It's been said that a billion bricks have been created in the history of the city and
that's largely because the land of the western Netherlands is rich in clay soil.
(hammers pounding) Easy to make bricks from it.
Similar to cobblestone pavement found in many old European towns, but the bricks are even
smoother.
They'll come through a machine and pound it down, make it nice and level.
This is right along one of the main streets of the city, it leads from the town square
over to the train station, which is where we are heading, wrapping up our visit to the
beautiful city of Gouda.
It's a pleasant walk to the train station, passing the Singel Canal around the city.
It's only 800 meters from the central market square over to the train station, so you can
do that in 5 or 10 minutes.
Gouda is generally visited as a daytrip from other nearby cities, which are only 20 to
30 minutes away by train.
Even all the way to Amsterdam is just 52 minutes.
So you can easily visit Gouda for most of the day without spending the night there.
Or if you wish to overnight, there are some fine hotels such as a four-star Best Western.
The superb Dutch rail system makes it very easy to travel around in this relatively small
nation, as you will see in our many other movies about the Netherlands, where we take
you to all of the highlights of this wonderful country.
Look for them in our collection.
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