Gouda

I think today was the most relaxed day that we've had. About 10 am (our schedule is a late one) we headed out to have breakfast in the marketplace. It was chilly this morning. The high for the day was 68 with the sun only coming out about 5 pm. Today was a special market day - which I was excited to hear. There in the middle of this very  old town would be a wonderful market, but that's not what happened. There was a market alright - a flea market. I guess every country has its "treasures" to drag out and set on tables for others to look through. So after a few rows of such treasures, we decided we'd had enough and headed off down a side street. That's one of the beauties of Europe. You never know what a side street, or a narrow country road, will bring you. This particular street brought us to the longest church in Holland - about 400 feet. It was massive. In the late 1200s, the Catholics started to build it. In 1573, the Protestants took it over. Now it's a Dutch Reformed Church with 1,500 people worshiping every Sunday morning - less for the second service.

The church is world famous for its stained glass windows. There's one that's about 60 feet high. During WWII, all of the panes of glass where taken down and hidden in an underground room in the country to keep them safe. The church has two organs. There was to be a concert tonight so the organist was practising. Dave really loved this.

Across the street from the church was a building that started as a milita building but was turned into the only hospital, the Catherine Hospice,  in town during the Middle Ages. There was talk of the plague on the plaque outside the building. Included in our entrance fee to the church was a free coffee at the cafe just outside the  hospital. As I sat there I couldn't see anything from today (except for the tables and chairs). All around me were buildings and brick fences from 700+ years ago. It was probably as close as I'll get to feeling like I'm "in" those days. This is the most beautiful place I've been in so far on our trip. A wonderful place to sit and dream about living so long ago.

Next we went into the militia/hospital building which has been turned into a museum. I was again surprised, and bothered, that just about everything on display could be touched (if you choose to - they weren't encouraging it). The buidling, and many items, dated from the 1200s. You can't take pictures though. Found that out the hard way. That was one sentence in Dutch I didn't have any trouble understanding.

In the basement were 3 rooms with items used to torture people. On the second floor was a display of medical equipment. I think they could have been displayed together! Most of the museum was full of art. There were about 5 massive paintings related to the militia that were very impressive and we spent some time looking at them. The rest, we walked right by. Art is not our thing. Some looked like something a little kid would do. Some of the plaques were in English but not all. It's frustrating not being able to read about everything - which Dave and I love to do.

Next was a bit of shopping. We ordered a custom made "number plaque" with our name on it for the end of our driveway. All of the homes here have one of these plaques - some with a name and some without. They're beautiful. It'll arrive in about 6 weeks - they're hand painted. While Dave was taking care of the details, I was playing with the shop's dog.

We found a grocery store and it was very different than ours are. It's quite small, the carts are tiny (in fact, most people use the small plastic baskets but here they're on wheels) and the fresh and frozen foods sections are very large and the canned goods section is almost none existant. People shop here almost daily, if not daily, and so most of the items are fresh. You can buy things in very small quantities - half a loaf of bread, three pieces of sliced meat, 4 eggs, 1.5 kg of flour is as big as it gets - there isn't super size anything. The counters at the check out only have room for about 5 items at a time. It was incredibly busy so me taking pictures not only seemed strange to the shoppers but held things up. There in the fridge section was habak (still don't have the spelling right on this). With only stir stixs, we had some when we got back to the car. Mmmmmmm. At the entrance to the store, but inside the door, a dog was tied up. So many things that you see here that you'd never see at home. Maybe more on that another day.

Here some interesting information on restaurants.
- orders are taken on iphone like-machines which sends the order directly to the kitchen
- smoking is permitted in the outdoor cafes - SO MANY people smoke here
- wait staff is paid very well and so most people don't tip - if you do, 5% is plenty
- ketchup tastes like pureed tomatoes - ugh!
- french fries come with every entree - even in the better places
- water always comes in a bottle

About 4:30 we got in the car to drive to Rotterdam - should have taken 20 minutes but took an hour due to an accident (not us). We found a place to stay, relaxed a bit and then went for a walk. I don't think we're in the best part of town. It's not horrible but not really nice. We had supper in the hotel restaurant about 8:30. For 45 minutes straight an older Italian lady at the next table talked. 45 minutes! It was so quiet when she left.

Tomorrow we've going to take a river cruise through the harbor of Rotterdam.

One thing I learned today: There's only one Reformed church in Holland today. In 2004, they decided to become one. Maybe some day the CRC and the RCA will do the same.

One new thing I experienced today: Getting in trouble in Dutch.

Most powerful moment of the day: Being in the very room in which doctors formed a guild of surgeons hundreds of years ago.

One pleasurable experience: Sitting in a place  that I could have sat in over 800 years ago and it would have looked exactly the same!