Arriving in Gouda, The Netherlands

One of our stops in The Netherlands was Gouda, where we did some sight seeing and ate some cheese. Our hotel was near the highway and did not provide a promising view of the town.

View from our hotel room--two big box mattress stores!

At least we had a canal

Canals are a big part of Gouda. The old town section is basically surrounded by a canal which makes driving tricky. We tried to drive into town to get dinner and went over many different waterways, some more than once. Our guidebook recommended a little cafe on an alley just by the main church. We parked at the church and found Eetcafe Vidocq and had a really great meal. The food was good and the atmosphere was nice, with lots of posters from movies on the walls as well as the menu (which was indecipherable to us). The table servers were very helpful.

The next day we parked just outside the main canal and walked in to the old area. We were greeted by a cheese lady who was nice enough to pose with us, though she was too shy to talk.

J wasn't shy!

We came upon the canal and saw a fascinating bridge. Soon we were onto our adventures.

The main canal

Bridge for pedestrians and bikes only!

More on our adventures in the next post!