When you go on a trip do you choose a new destination each time or revisit the places you've already been to?
(a street in Gouda, the Netherlands)
Mark, Ana and I decided to go on a two-day trip to Rotterdam. We set off on Friday afternoon from Luxembourg and spent the night in a town near Rotterdam.
On Saturday morning as we were waking up, drinking our first cup of coffee, Mark said he wanted to visit Amsterdam once again, a city we had visited the year before.
We changed the route, stopped in Haarlem, which I wrote about in my last post, and after half an hour we arrived in Amsterdam.
(Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
The city walk revived my memories. Everything was familiar but at the same time it was also new; the many canals instead of roads, bridges and cafes along the sidewalks, and the colorful facades.
(a street in Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
I thought how quickly the year had gone by since it felt as though we were here yesterday.
My attention was caught by thousands of bikes tied to an iron fence on a bridge.
While we were walking around the city I saw only one mountain bike, which didn’t surprise me because the Netherlands are known as a country of endless plains, hence one would expect multi speed bikes to be unnecessary.
The important thing is that the bikes are comfortable.
(Amsterdam, the Nethrlands)
Most of them look old and used and are mostly black or a metal like color. I assume the aim is protection against stealing. In this sea of similar bikes, the ones with a bright blue colored front wheel really stood out.
Perhaps it was intentional, so they would be easier to recognize.
Throughout the city there are a lot of bike lanes, routes and even traffic lights for bikes.
We walked on the sidewalks being very careful not to step onto the bike lanes.
The locals drive fast, ring their bells a lot and in the best case scenarios they will try to avoid pedestrians who get in their way, but mainly expect you to move.
If they were to hit you, I assume it would be as painful as being hit by a car, so you have to be careful when walking around Amsterdam.
As real tourists we stopped in front of a stall in the street where souvenirs were being sold. Amidst the great offer of typical Dutch handcrafts like wooden tulips, windmills, clogs, we bought a few magnets with Amsterdam's neighborhoods painted on them.
Because we had spent a part of the day in Haarlem, we couldn't stay any longer as we had to find accommodation. We found one we liked via booking.com in a town near Rotterdam.
Next day we woke up around eight, drank some coffee, put our stuff in the car and enjoyed an easy drive along a long, straight road on polders, curiously watching the landscape as we passed by.
Do you know what polders are and what they are used for?
A polder is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankment.
Up until the end of the 19th century, windmills were used to drain the water from polders. In the 17th century there were around 10 000 windmills that were used not only for polders but also in the food and textile industry.
Nowadays everything is done by mechanized machines for pumping water, while the windmills remain a cultural and tourist attraction; an inseparable detail of the Dutch landscape.
More than 50% of the Netherlands is beneath sea level, which means that the road we took, as well as all the houses on both sides of the road would be under the sea if the system stopped working.
The dried areas have extremely fertile ground and have played a significant role in making the Netherlands one of the top exporters of agricultural and dairy products and of course flowers, mostly tulips.
Do you know which world famous Dutch cheese got its name after a Dutch city?
That was our next destination.
The city of Gouda.
(a street in Gouda, the Netherlands)
I'm a huge fan of cheese and was really looking forward to buying one big original Dutch truckle of Gouda.
On our way to the city center, in one of the canals I saw cheese tide to a metal bar that rose from the water. As we were approaching it, I saw another piece of cheese on a building facade.
Those were all commercial samples that led us to the most famous cheese store.
With great disappointment we realized it was closed. It was Sunday.
We continued our walk, turning from one street to another and were delighted once again with neat facades and planted flowers that decorated the bridges and parks of the city.
In the middle of the square, among all the densely packed houses, the old City Hall building stood out. It is considered to be one of the oldest secular Gothic structures.
(the old City Hall in Gouda, the Netherlands)
Tall, pointy towers reach high towards the sky framing elongated windows on the building’s facade under which stands the grand entrance gate flanked on both sides by a stone stairway.
(the old City Hall in Gouda, the Netherlands)
On the side of the building, two parallel sets of windows were embellished by the intense red color of the shutters. The shutters looked as though they were going to wave at me.
I watched them hypnotized and forgot all about the cheese.
Behind the City Hall was the museum of cheese where a group of tourists stood with their guides.
(Gouda cheese museum, the Netherlands)
One could easily stumble across cyclists in Gouda, but they were much less in number than in Amsterdam; the city itself is smaller and has fewer inhabitants.
In the end we sat down for coffee and around 11 a.m. continued towards Rotterdam.
Tell me if you like riding bikes and eating cheese sandwiches? What is your favorite type of cheese and have you ever heard of the Gouda cheese?
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