My Town Monday - Gouda

This week is the turn of Gouda, a town in Holland famous for one thing - CHEESE !! Gouda is a very pretty town, it has a fairytale town hall which is dressed up with flags on market days. This building reminds me of the setting for Chitty Chitty bang Bang !!

Market day was very interesting with the producers attending the market in their horse drawn carts to sell their cheeses to the buyers. They taste the cheese and start to haggle for the best price. The cheeses are laid out in the square for inspection and once the deal is sealed they are taken off by the buyer.

Once the market finished we went for a walk around and ended up looking around the 16th Century Sint -Janskerk, which is a church dedicated to the life of St John the Baptist. This is the biggest Church in Holland which started out as a Catholic Church but as a result of the Reformation in the middle ages was changed into a protestant church. The stained glass windows in the church were spectacular.