I don’t typically identify as a “cheese person.” I enjoy a good cheese plate like anyone else, and I go wild for a good grilled cheese sandwich, but I’m more of an opportunistic cheese-lover.
That said – I did go to Gouda almost exclusively because of cheese. Not only was I intrigued by the town’s relationship to Gouda cheese,[1] but also that it’s the home of a massive and very popular traditionally-run cheese market. The market runs weekly from April to September and is known for its unique traditions, including a method of bargaining known as handjeklap, where buyers and sellers negotiate by and through clapping each others’ hands and shouting out prices until an agreement is reached.[2]
Like Texel before it, my time there was wonderfully unplanned. As with the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, I just missed the market season, so the town was fairly empty by the time I arrived.
But let me tell you – Gouda does not disappoint, even without the market. There were cheese wheels on every foreseeable surface: lining several streets, hanging from eaves, and even lying stacked up in boats docked in canals. I didn’t know that many cheese wheels actually existed outside of cartoons.
Underneath the cheesy outer layer, there is an almost appallingly-beautiful town. I became obsessed with a couple shops around town, including a toy store and an antique shop where I could afford absolutely nothing.
In addition to cheese, Gouda is the home of stroopwafels: waffle wafers pressed together around a caramel center.[3]
I did do more on this leg of my trip than just eat, I promise.[4] It was just mostly about food (and said food is also the majority of the reason I am writing this brief post). I did do a lot of walking, especially to the windmills that overlooked the city’s canals and docks in order to try to get the perfect #sunset pictures…I just also happened to bring snacks with me.
I spent about 4 days in Gouda, and due to the smaller size of the city, I became quite familiar with the city center. My Airbnb host ran a shop underneath her home (or maybe she lived above her shop), so every day I would crawl down the steep Dutch stairs[5] and set off around the city, usually finding different bakeries and cheese shops.
Everyone was friendly, almost to the point of confusing me – while at a restaurant, I bonded with my waitress who offered to take me around Gouda’s somewhat limited nightlife. But, I somehow lost her contact information and ended up sitting back at my windmills, snacking on stroopwafels all by my lonesome.
[1] Gouda cheese’s first mentions can be traced back as far as 1184, making it one of the oldest still-made cheeses in existence. Nowadays, Gouda is often used a blanket term for a number of Dutch cheeses, but originally Gouda was the home and origin of Gouda cheese. The cheese is now largely produced on an industrial scale, but some 300 or so Dutch farms still produce boerenkaas, which is a protected form of traditionally-made Gouda.
[2] This is going to sound strange, but I would highly recommend you look into the traditions and formalities of Dutch cheese markets. Some of the highlights of such research feature the term “cheese father.”
[3] It is suggested that you put them on top of a warm drink to get all melty. Take that suggestion.
[4] A genuinely amazing site to visit in Gouda is Sint Janskerk, which is the longest church in the Netherlands at 123 meters. Sint Janskerk, or Saint John, was re-built in 1552 after a fire, but has been mentioned as far back as 1280. The church is known for its stained glass windows depicting a number of scenes and figures from the Bible and Dutch history.
[5] I mean this very literally – several shop customers were concerned at how much I struggled with this staircase.
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