Since it was Sunday, the breakfast buffet didn’t open until 8am. So the day was well in progress when we were able to eat. This breakfast area had an outside terrace to enjoy the already-warm day. It’s supposed to be a hot one, and we could feel the heat building at that time of the morning.
Another breakfast at the awesome end of the range. With the variety of foods, it’s easy to overeat. As my dad used to say, “It’s too bad a guy fills up so fast.”
Terry’s bike quit working yesterday so they hung back at the hotel, waiting for another one to be delivered, and Deb and I took off towards Gouda. This segment took us past some farmland and several large greenhouse operations. Seeds and flowers are big here and these massive greenhouses would attest to that. Acres and acres of glass for as far as the eye can see.
One segment of the trail went down part of Dorpsstrat, in the town of Zoetermeer, probably normally a very busy place since it is a very quaint, very traditional Dutch looking street. However, today it was almost completely deserted because it was Sunday, and the only traffic on the street were those walking and biking to a nearby Catholic church, whose bell tolled loudly and continually for nearly 15 minutes.
We stopped in Waddinxveen for lunch, finding a shady grassy area next to a road. At least three times as we sat there, a passer-by on a bicycle called out smak lekker! (eat well, or taste good). I knew what this expression meant, I just didn’t realize it was something you called out to complete strangers eating their lunch along the road.
Dank u wel, I think.
We stopped first at the hotel when we arrived in Gouda. Another 35 km covered. It felt good to get off the bikes. After checking in and dumping our stuff, we walked to the city square, just a few blocks away. Most of the shops were closed for Sunday, but there was a beach volleyball tournament going on. It looks like they had trucked in enough sand to cover the entire city square to a depth of about a foot, and there were several games going on at once. We watched one game for a while and decided we wouldn’t do too well. These guys did some amazing acrobatics to keep the ball in the air.
We picked up a few items at the grocery store next to the city square and Terry and Jill caught up with us there. One of the places we toured is the oldest building I had ever been in, the Town Hall in the center of the city square. The present building was built in 1450 and is the oldest gothic city hall in the Netherlands. They used to slaughter and sell animals in the basement and the deck on one side used to be the place where criminals met their end while the townsfolk looked on. Now the basement is done up as an event space and hundreds of weddings are done here every year, but the mayor still comes here daily and city business is still conducted in this building.
The guy at the desk said he has survived five mayors so far, and knew a lot about the building and the area. We asked him about some of the area churches. The big one near here, the Church of St. John, is open only for services on Sundays, so the only way to see the building today is to attend a service. There was an evening service at 5pm and it was now 4pm so we could do this if we wanted, not just to see a medieval church building, but to attend a church service on a Sunday, something we haven’t been able to do for a couple of weeks.
We strolled over to the building. I couldn’t really get a good picture because this colossal structure is closely surrounded by other buildings on all sides in the typical old-town narrow-street style. Walking around to what we thought was the front of the building, there appeared to be little activity. We decided to go get something to eat and walked around the remainder of the building to do so.
Along the side, in a street we had not been to yet, one of the doors was open and a couple guys were standing there, welcoming people to the service. They told us that we could have a brief look inside before the service started. We were 20 minutes early so there were very few people inside so we took a couple pictures and then asked about attending the service. One woman we talked to was very welcoming and said she would even sit with us and translate since the service was entirely in Dutch. So she sat us down in an area where she could translate without disturbing other people.
This was probably one of the highlights of this trip. Attending a church service in a 16th-century cathedral, hearing the pipe organ playing, and worshiping with other believers even though we didn’t understand the language.
The organist was very good and played with lots of expression. It has been a very long time since I have heard a pipe organ played like that. And to hear it in a large cathedral like this--so cool.
Although it was difficult to hear everything she was saying while the service was going on, we caught enough to get the gist of the message and the order of worship. It was a real treat.
We walked across the square to Casa Chow, a restaurant that was recommended by a couple people that we talked to. We had a Nachos dish and crispy chicken with some sort of sweet-spicy dipping sauce. Sort of a combination of Asian/Mexican fare. And it was very good.
So we’re in Gouda and maybe we’ll make it to a cheese shop tomorrow before we head out. Everything is pretty much closed today. We were bound to have one day like this on a 7-day tour. At least we were able to attend a service at St. John’s church. That was an unexpected highlight.
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