From magnificent to miniature - a world of contrasts

Its a lot cooler this morning.
We have booked breakfast in the restaurant and apart from that awful artificial orange juice that you find all over the world, the breakfast offerings match the dinner from last night. Scrambled eggs, bacon for Donna on toast,lots of fresh fruit including one of the palest pineapples I have ever seen - but so deliciously ripe, to the customary European cheeses and meats and salad ingredients.

We plan our day out before we set off. We will start in the Gouda Markt Square. The cheese markets are not on until tomorrow, but a local flea market is set up with the sellers doing a roaring trade - not dissimilar to our markets back in Maryborough - minus the fruit and vegetables.


There are a number of historic buildings we want to see. One of the former civic buildings houses a chiming character moving clock, donated to the City in 1961 to commemorate the granting of the City status to Gouda in 1272.

the Cheese guild building now houses the Tourist Information Centre.  You should see the crowd in here!  You ca purchase cheese, buy souvenirs, watch a Gouda making workshop and more.  Too bad we cannot bring the real McCoy back in to Australia with us.

But the building we are really here to see today is the Sint-Janskerk  with its 72 magnificent stained glass windows. (I am just realising that the word of this trip is magnificent!)
We buy tickets from a man who worked in Gladstone in the metals market, its a small world . . .  You can choose to do a self guided tour or a follow the numbers tour. We plug our headsets in to the guide tablet, choose self guided and promptly primarily follow the

numbers.  This church and its windows are (wait for it) M A G N I F I C E N T.  This is the longest church in the Netherlands and at 123 meters it is also the tallest church in the Netherlands. The building is so large that it is impossible to get the whole of it in amongst the tight little streets around it.  No problem - there is a scale model inside!

Dating back to 1530, much of it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1552. Shortly after the disaster, the directors commissioned to build the most spectacular church in Holland. Initially built as a Catholic Church, after the Reformation it became a Protestant Church and survives as this today (c.1579). A magnificent pulpit was put in the church and the catholic alter relegated to a back corner of the choir.

But the real claim to fame are the 72 splendid windows and the burial stones - the oldest one I found was 1561.  All the windows tell stories, with most of them being biblical, but a few are historic. They have to be seen to be believed. During WWII, the windows were dismantled and stored in strong boxes across the City.

After a number of hours staring jaw-dropped, we left Gouda (after a Cloudy home-made lemonade) and buy some siroopwaffles for later.

We programmed the car for Kinderdijk (Kinderdyke) about an hours drive. Here there are about 20 windmills lining one of the canals, some working, others not, and in a variety of styles and ages and the vista is very popular.  The locals have a 'magnificent' view and there are lots of Porsches in the narrow streets. We are wowed again and again.

BUT the day is not yet finished,

back in to the car we go and head for the miniature world at Madurodam which is found in The Hague. We left this until last, hoping to stay until the lights are turned on. Again we are moved by the story behind this 'magnificent' miniature world.  All structures are constructed to 1/25 scale and include historic monuments, many of which we saw in-situ today, through to modern operations including Amsterdam Airport and the Hoek de Hook port.  About now, the temperature plummets and the light drizzle starts to get heavier.  We have rushed through much of the site and now head for the souvenir shop and the restaurant to wait for the lights. About 7 pm we decide to leave and beat the traffic that will all leave at 8 pm when they close.

It rains all the way back to the hotel and we are happy to pull in to the parking lot just before 8 pm.
Rain is expected tomorrow so we are planning a day with indoor visits, although we are hoping to get to the Gouda Cheese Market. We need to be back at Amsterdam Airport about 4 pm to get our flight to Oslo, Norway!

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