Apparently, this town is not pronounced as we do the cheese, which is one and the same name.  It starts with an H sound.  How-da is more how it sounds in the Netherlands.  Our ship was docked in Rotterdam, so we took the tram to the central station. We used our credit cards to pay for the tram, which made things very easy. 

Our round trip tickets to Gouda were a little over 12 euros.  It took about half an hour to get there.  The scenery was lovely and we even passed by The Hague, which my husband thought was pretty cool.  We also drove away from all the rain showers! 

It was Sunday and also a holiday, so we were a little nervous about how many things would be open.  Luckily, the cheese experience was open and even had a few people there ahead of us.  They have a cafe, shop, and the experience. I think we paid about 15 euros each to go in.  We were given a clipboard with a bunch of questions and a listening device to hear about all the exhibits.  We had to answer all the questions correctly to become cheese masters and if we got all six stamps on the bottom we got a prize.  Of course my husband and I were all excited to get everything right! It was actually really fun.  

The displays were interactive.  We got to “milk a cow” and race to see who got the most milk (of course I won).  You could smell a barn and the feed.  They gave us samples of milk and cheese as we listened to and read about the whole process of making and aging cheese.  At the end of the experience we got to sample the cheese.  

We had five samples.  Two were young cheeses, aged less than a year, one was with herbs, and two were older cheeses.  Both us liked the second oldest cheese, even though all of them were really good and I would not pass up eating any of them!  

On our way to lunch we saw the town hall. The back part is where they used to (maybe still do) sell all the cheese.  It’s a beautiful building. 

We decided to eat more cheese!  We got a cheese board as well as a grilled cheese.  It was so much cheese!  It was also absolutely delicious.  The restaurant also had a cheese store with all kinds of samples. Needless to say, I was cheesed-out by the end of the experience.  We did buy a vacuum sealed block of cheese to take home though.  

We walked along the beautiful streets, amazed at the architecture and the canals.  

Of course we found a windmill, which was on top of a house and I think someone lived there.  How cool is that?!  (I don’t think you can say you went to the Netherlands unless you see a windmill.)

We walked back through a park along the water and it was so peaceful.  I love finding areas like that to enjoy when we are on a trip.  

I really love the commitment that the Netherlands has for bicycles.  There is a lane for cars, a lane for bikes, and a lane for pedestrians.  When we rode by a ferry, instead of cars they were letting off bikers.  It looked like the beginning of a bike race.  I wish we had a better system in our country for bike riders in which we didn’t have to worry about being hit by a car.  Most bikers in the Netherlands do not wear helmets, they are just enjoying a leisurely ride without worry about cars.