Glimpse Gouda

Everyone has heard of Gouda Cheese, but have you heard of Gouda the city? 

If not, this post is for you! 

If so, good for you!

Hopefully this post will have a little something for everyone-- the Gouda educated and the Gouda ignorant. 

Gouda (in Dutch pronounced: gutteral 'h'a-ow-dah) is more than cheese, 

but let's get the cheese out of the way first. 

This superbly creamy solid dairy may have the name of Gouda, but it might as well be called "Netherlands Cheese" because it is the cheese of choice and in reality it is made and sold all over The Netherlands. 

Gouda can be found in many varieties, but the basics are: young = soft & white, middle aged = yellow & firm (see picture), aged = very hard & darker yellow. (For those interested our daily cheese is the middle aged.)

So why is it called Gouda (or in Dutch goudse) cheese? 

Quick history lesson: The farmers around the city of Gouda developed and perfected the making of this creamy, smooth tasting cheese and then brought it to the big market in Gouda to sell it, and have been doing that for 300 years so the name Gouda kind of stuck. 

The town hall. This is another of Gouda's claims to fame, but we didn't get any spectacular pictures of it due to the Saturday market that was crowding the town square. 

Side view of the town hall. In The Netherlands it is customary to have your wedding in 2 places, you start out in the town hall for the legal proceedings and then move under a steeple for a blessing. 

I thought that would be extremely bothersome until I got to see some of the city/town halls -- they're usually one of the best looking buildings in the city . . . now that idea doesn't sound so bad. 

Standing tall and proud, this Gouda windmill brought to life the Dutch icon. In the picture it looks nice, in real life it was rather impressive, more of a historic beacon than historic icon. 

Canals always make for lovely pictures. 

Just a nice quiet little Dutch lane. 

Me, in Gouda, with flowers because we were going to visit a co-worker for dinner and it's polite to bring flowers for the host. 

Saab! It's Luke's old car in it's European context. 

We don't miss driving or caring for a car, but it was fun to see this.

Quick Trip: Germany

Aachen, Germany

Playing the tourist in Aachen. We weren't the only ones though, it seems to be a hot spot for Dutch day trips, we heard almost as much Dutch as German in the main areas. 

What did Germany look like? Where we were, this is what it looked like. 

It's not actually historic, it's representative of history. Inside the pillared room you can feel the warm mineral water that has been valued in Aachen since before Roman times. 

Here is the jewel of Aachen. Maybe the geod. . . the inside is the best part. 

Inside the "Kaiserdom" or "Royal Church of St. Mary at Aachen". 

There's a good reason that this church was the coronation church for about 42 kings/queens. It is gorgeous. 

The pictures are pathetic in comparison to experiencing the cathedral in real life. The gold mosaics glint, the blue sparkles and all of the pictures and artwork in the mosaics are incredibly clear. 

What's more, this covers all of the upper part of the dome arches for two levels. 

The ceiling of the main dome. It's way up there, but it is no less impressive at this distance. It looks like a window into heaven . . . and maybe that is what it is supposed to represent. 

The bust of Charlemagne. In gold. 

Again, made a few hundred years after he actually lived, so they made the face fit his legendary self rather than his actual self, and man did he have legend on his side. Although he conquered and pillaged, he was considered by many to be the ideal of a Medieval king. 

More amazing than the bust of Charlemagne-- his hunting horn and hunting knife! 

He was riding through the woods with these some time between 768 - 814 A.D. 

Forget the bust, this made my eyes nearly pop out. 

Coronation cope, so-called Cappa Leonis

This so-called plaque was just like all of the other so-called plaques and used so-called words in ways that made us so-called amused. 

But perhaps the German majors could shed light on our so-called lack of German language knowledge?

Aachen has a famous town hall, and this also has been used for coronations and has a great bit of history involved with it, but it was closed so we just admired from the outside. 

Old city gate of Aachen. 

Now it just sort of stands beside a busy road as a reminder of different time. The Middle Ages seem so much more recent here (in Europe and especially Germany). 

Looking at all those buildings made us hungry, and the store fronts looked so lovely, so we went in to figure out what in the world 'printen' was. 

I was really lured in by the cute hedgehog, but he didn't include chocolate

so I didn't end up buying one.

As it turns out, 'printen' is gingerbread, complete with crystalized ginger and they dress it up with chocolate and nuts, with anise sugar coating, or just an almond. The chocolate ones are by far the best. 

It takes real food to keep you on your feet and German bakery is good at providing that. Aside from fresh baked goods they had pre-made cold cut sandwiches that were perfect for the hungry traveler. Made with the famous German roll-- hard on the outside, soft on the inside. 

A quick peek at our hotel room. The most peculiar part was our pillows, I've never slept on so much pillow, it nearly took up a quarter of the bed. 

The bathroom. The rubber duckies on the curtain gave us a smile. 

The door handle to the bathroom = my favorite part of the room. I was never expecting to see a door handle like this in real life, to my imaginative mind it looked like it was designed from a fairy tale. 

Amazing Maastricht part 2

Some more Maastricht . . .

You were expecting to see more buildings? Well they weren't the only pleasant things to look at in Maastricht, the trees were quite beautiful as well. 

Have we stepped into France? Historically speaking, yes, Maastricht took part in the French Revolution and was home to some important Napoleon supporters so it got more than a little bit of French flare added to its architecture.  I'm not educated enough to comment on all the architecture of Maastricht, but we're pretty sure that this photograph is a picture of France, as it should be. 

This was nice, so we took a picture of it. 

It's hard to tell, but when you walk by this you can tell that it is clearly connected to the Catholic Church because of the statues in the nooks of the wall. We saw a little old lady go up to the wooden door, ring the bell and then disappear inside, it made me wonder what sort of secrets are inside. 

Statues are not very bountiful in Northern Netherlands, but here they were prevalent. 

Those cobble stones are lovely, but after 2 solid days of walking on them for hours on end I started to develop some (very minor) joint pain from the unforgiving ground that jarred 

my asphalt-accustomed gait. 

Note to tourist, I think Europeans are very serious about their coffe breaks because that is how they save their feet and joints, so while touring, set times to sip something delicious 

and just enjoy the scenery. 

Another "don't see that up North" photo. 

9:20 am on a Tuesday may not seem early to most people, but this city was barely rousing which gave me an opportunity to capture some street views. 

A street sign. Feeling like a linguistic detective? 

Take a good guess why I have a picture of this sign and see the next caption for the answer. 

These street signs give us 2 clues about Maastricht. The first clue is that Maastricht 

is bilingual/bi-dialectal (we'll let people with a Ph.D. decide which it is) because the sign has the same thing written twice on it. Dutch on top, Limburgish on bottom. 

The second clue pertains to the first sign. The sign says "Our Beloved Lady Square/Plaza" 

which means that we are in Catholic country. 

Step inside the art museum of Maastricht and this will greet you. The entire building was designed by one architect and apparently that is rare because they were proud of it. 

Instead of a ticket, the art museum gave us tin buttons that clip on your shirt. You were supposed to display them so that the security could see you had paid for your entrance. 

I was proud to model mine for the camera.

Modern magnificence. 

It was an interesting exhibit. I'm not art/ist/studies/history/major/critic but I enjoyed it. 

I also kind of wish I could know what the art history professors of 3012 will be saying about today's period of art.