How-da tell real Gouda cheese, Gouda, Netherlands
Zagan the motorhome is having a free night in the aire next to the historic centre of Gouda, in The Netherlands (N52.01086, E4.71712). As I tried to put my card into the pay machine a fellow motorhomer popped over to tell me it is free on Sundays, with free electricity and a service point too – winner.
The bells at the church next to the aire in Isselburg chimed their way through the night. Not just the hour, but helpfully every quarter of an hour, just in case I was wondering how long they were keeping me awake for. Luckily for me the clocks went back last night, so I felt OK when our alarm went off at 8.30 (I’d remembered to change it before I went to bed). It was a pleasant change to wake to daylight.
After breakfast we headed off to Lidl to cash in our stash of bottles and cans, we had a dizzy sum of €2.50 in pfands (deposits) to collect before we left Germany. Sadly we hadn’t counted on the fact that it was Sunday, so Lidl and the other supermarkets we passed on our way there were all shut. Our cans went into a cardboard box by the shopping trollies; hopefully someone will put them in the machine tomorrow and press the button to give the money to charity.
Fortunately the petrol stations weren’t closed, so we topped up our LPG and diesel, as we’d heard they are cheaper in Germany, and made for the border. Checking out the fuel prices after we crossed confirmed that we were right to have filled up, we paid €1.14 a litre, the cheapest we saw off the motorway was €1.18. After a further couple of hours of ever-widening motorway, I counted eight lanes in each direction at one point, we reached Gouda.
How to tell you’re in The Netherlands Part 1 – They tell you with signs
How to tell you’re in The Netherlands Part 2 – Flat land and water -illed ditches across the fields
How to tell you’re in The Netherlands Part 3 – More bicycles than cars
The aire is right in town so, after a spot of lunch, we set off for a walk around. We crossed the canal running around the centre then, turning a corner, the market square opened out in front of us. The town hall sits in the middle of the square in isolation, a decision taken after the original one burnt down in 1438. We were both a bit taken aback as we haven’t seen beautiful architecture like this for a while, and it was unexpected since we’d only chosen this place for the aire.
Surrounded by houses we tried to walk around Saint John’s Church, the longest in The Netherlands because the land was too soft to build it tall, only to find the narrow passageways around it dug up. A sign informed us that they are doing essential ground works to the electrical, gas and water infrastructure, but also pointed out how carefully they are doing it because under the paths were many graves.
Hopefully no graves under this loo which is almost surrounded by church – of course Jay had to test it!
Jay in his heaven – a specialist beer shop, if only they had some under a euro a litre
Gouda is famous for two things, well probably several but two culinary ones – Gouda Cheese and Stroopwaffles. We love a stroopwaffle, keep your eyes peeled in Lidl they often have them in the UK, which are two big waffles filled with a syrup filling. Balance your waffle on a hot brew to melt the filling for a top treat. We sat down outside a cafe in the main square for a drink and stroopwaffle, but there weren’t any on the menu, so we beat a hasty retreat and instead treated ourselves to a chunk of Gouda, pronounced How-da around here.
Say Cheese!
In the small shop next to the tourist office (the only cheese one that was open) Jay asked if they were all made locally, and were surprised when the lady replied no. It seems there are two types of Gouda, the factory-produced stuff which uses pasteurised milk, and the stuff produced in the local farms which uses unpasteurised milk.
A relief on the Cheese museum shows traders weighing cheese – so of course we bought our cheese here
Local stuff to the left, factory-produced on the right
As we were in Gouda and buying some Gouda, we wanted the real deal so opted for the farm-produced stuff. What sort do we want? Errr, dunno – memories of our champagne tasting experience came flooding back. It seems the older it gets the stronger the taste, so of course we went for a mature chunk. We’ve since tried out the Boerenkaas Overjarig and it’s a bit like a strong mature cheddar, but then that could be because we’re so close to home that I’m dreaming of cheese on toast.
An aerial view of Gouda in the local library (next to aire and with free wifi) shows the drainage needed to stop the land from returning to marsh – love how it goes around the football pitches
We rounded off our tour of the town with a gelato, an ice cream from an artisan maker. As we sat in the sunshine outside the shop we could have been back in Italy, if there weren’t plastic Gouda cheeses hanging from wire above the streets like unlit Christmas decorations!
Tomorrow we’re off to the supermarket for a quick stock up before we head for the ferry home. I’m already apprehensive about the crossing, but with some sea sickness pills and seeing a red sky tonight, I’m hopeful that the crossing won’t be too choppy.
I can’t believe that this tour is coming to an end, it still feels a bit surreal that we’ll be sleeping in our own bed in a couple of days. We set off on Thursday 28 January and so far have travelled 16,697 kilometres, visiting 19 countries. It’s been a blast and on 20 November we set off for another next trip, so we have three weeks to get Zagan and ourselves ship shape and ready to head south – bring it on.
Ju x
You’ll need a bit of a break before the next one. Happy to be following along. Enjoy your short stay at home. Take care.
In Zagan’s defence, his IS your own bed! ;-) Have a safe and enjoyable trip home guys and enjoy indulging in all things ‘English’. Can’t wait till the OurTour wheels are rolling south again and the lappy keys are being tickled. Hope Gouda is night-mare-free. Kindest…Wayne.
Haha, we have many beds! Loved your write-up on Croatia, especially the bit about the enormous car parking charges and you way around ’em. Not looking like we’ll be Cub 90’ing ourselves this time around, we’re going to load up on bikes though so we can get a bit more flexibility. Looking forward to reading your take on your route to Greece, and on Greece itself for that matter, we really (REALLY) enjoyed being there. Ferry home in a few hours, time to go load up at Lidl and find the Hook of Holland! Cheers, Jay
We’ll be waving from the Felixstowe side (on the right) as you head into port at Harwich tonight around 7pm. Calm as a mill pond this side just now, so safe travels and welcome back… Til the next tour.
Thanks Ian, just left the port, sky and sea beautifully calm, enjoying freebie Internet on board the ferry, and the anticipation of being able to understand what people are saying around me for once! Cheers, Jay
Have a safe journey back home guys and we will keep in touch. Sitting on Lake Vanern at the moment coming up to half way through our trip .
Mark & Jane
Enjoyed following the whole tour, thanks for sharing, Enjoy being home and your room being more than 7ft wide !
We are sailing out of Newcastle tomorrow on our first “big” trip abroad in our Hymer, bound for Amsterdam and making our way south. Probably down eastern France and then taking a right (West ) hoping to make Portugal eventually. Your blog has been really helpful in planning our travels and setting up the van for the long trip. Yup, a wealth of tips and info ….only at Ourtour.co.uk …….cheers guys !