it's my turn again at Vision and Verb, talking about "a little good news."
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Lucky for me, it was time for my annual laptop maintenance (something I never did in the States, mind you), and because Astrid has plenty of vacation days, she decided to take last Friday off for a photo hunt in Gouda...while my laptop was in the shop not far away. Any excuse for our koffie and appeltaart...this time appelnotentaart. That is, with nuts added. You don't have to ask me twice. By the way, with our cappuccino and latte macchiato and the added slagroom (whipped cream), the total was €6,60 because we had a V&D (department store) coupon. Since many cities have a V&D, we check ahead of time for where we can use our coupons...especially if we know we'll eat in a 'real cafe' later for lunch, which we did. Another piece of trivia: when you write numbers in Dutch, commas take the place of our decimal points. Thus the €6,60.
Yada yada yada. You know me and the details.
Because I'm still processing photos from our day in Gouda, I've decided to process the photo hunt in two parts: first the cheese and then the city. HA! And you thought Gouda was only cheese.
Once we parked Granny Towanda, we walked into the city center...
and there she was, Gouda's kaasmeisje = cheese lady.
I'm guessing she's one of the most photographed women in the world. :)
And from that point on, Gouda cheese was everywhere to be found.
Even in the niche on the side of a chapel above left!
It was 't Kaaswinkeltje (little cheese shop), however, that took the cheese, so to speak!
We could have easily spent half a day inside...looking, tasting, buying.
See the green cheese on the bottom-left above: gouda with wasabi. DELICIOUS.
Who thinks these things up?
And don't you just love the 'wheels,' for which gouda cheese is known.
See? Your eyes just get bigger and bigger and bigger!
We had more fun in that shop than in any store in a long time.
Next week I will show you Gouda, the city. Definitely a tourist city to please the eye. To whet your appetite, here's their water tower:
Gouda's water tower was built in 1883 at 33.15 meters high, holding 300 m3.
Did you know there's an online list of all the water towers in the Netherlands!
That's how we often find out if/where they are. The same for windmills.
Did you know there's an online list of all the water towers in the Netherlands!
That's how we often find out if/where they are. The same for windmills.
By now you know the destination is only part of the fun for us. Getting there has long been almost as important because of what we find along the way. For instance...
...the minute Astrid saw these telephone poles, she was totally shocked.
Once she mentioned it, NO, I hadn't seen any above-ground telepone wires here in Holland since arriving over a year ago. But in one little stretch, there they were. She has no idea why they're there and nowhere else that she knows of. We're guessing there's a good reason. But what?
See the duo-pod? About every 3rd to 4th pole.
And if you had the eagle eye, you saw the stork's nest behind the telephone pole!
That's when Astrid stopped the car and I got out to get closer.
When the stork suddenly flew away, I got so flustered I almost lost the opportunity.
Storks are so common in Holland they actually have nesting stands built for them.
That still amazes me!
Once she mentioned it, NO, I hadn't seen any above-ground telepone wires here in Holland since arriving over a year ago. But in one little stretch, there they were. She has no idea why they're there and nowhere else that she knows of. We're guessing there's a good reason. But what?
See the duo-pod? About every 3rd to 4th pole.
And if you had the eagle eye, you saw the stork's nest behind the telephone pole!
That's when Astrid stopped the car and I got out to get closer.
When the stork suddenly flew away, I got so flustered I almost lost the opportunity.
Storks are so common in Holland they actually have nesting stands built for them.
That still amazes me!
Now I'm back to processing Gouda-the-city images for my next post. In the meantime, please don't forget my Vision and Verb for today. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all heard a little good news right about now!
