Hello everyone,
I am now spending my second night here. There was so much going on here today and last night that I felt I could find enough to do to warrant staying this night as well. And that is how it turned out. When I got off the train I just started walking towards the center square. I walked past it and turned right and just by chance after the next left I found one of the small hotels that I had read about and made note of from the internet. Ther aren't more than a couple of hotels here and I was told that the reason was because most Dutch people and tourists come here only for a day trip. It is a very quaint hotel and I have a budget room as they called it. The room is quite small but very comfortable and the breakfast is included and I must say it was excellent this morning.
The owner helped me to get in touch with Bob Funcken from his cell phone around 7:30 last night. The number I had got from you Nancy has changed but we were able to find him in the phone book. I let the hotel phone him and ask if he was the right person and then when it was I chatted with him for a bit and he decided to meet me at an agreed upon place and take me back to his condo for a visit. We had a great few hours enjoying time together. It turned out that Joan his wife had just left for a visit to her mom in Ireland so I never got to meet her. He showed me around the area a bit and explained about their new place. It is quite nice, very modern styling with all new modern furniture. I was glad to have a chance to meet him here in Gouda and we parted a little after 11:00. When I got back to where I had locked up my bike the bands were playing on the huge stage set up in the old town square. It was loud and there were thousands of people enjoying the party atmosphere. I mainly watched the crowd and listened to some of the music and ended my evening with an order of fries with mayonnaise. I was quite tired so I didn't stay up much after I got back to the hotel. I locked up the bike and the first thing I did in the morning was look out by the door to see if my bike was still there. It was gone and I had a strange feeling for a few minutes till the ower of the hotel told me he had moved it across the way not realizing it was my bike. The night before he had offered to put in the back of the hotel for me but I arrived back so late everyone was gone and the restaurant was closed.
So today I saw all of Gouda and it is a beautiful place. I biked all around the newer areas and some canals and parklands. It is really a pretty area. There is a center core of the city that mainly dates back to the 1500 and 1600 hundreds. They have a Resistance Museum which I visited and I also visited the cheese weighing house from about 1540. There was a a great museum on the second and third levels and I had a personal guide, an older man who had lived in Brooks, Alberta for a couple of years so he spoke English quite well. In the city there is also a marvelous city hall. I got a few good pictures of it. They rebuilt it right in the middle of the square all by itself in stone so that it could never be burnt again like it was the first time. As an individual building it is probably one of the most beautiful I have seen here. I visited the Church of John the Baptist and it is the longest church in all of the Netherlands. It is so big that they have seveal areas block off to use for the services and the rest is wide open. The stained glass is what it is most famous for. When the 2nd world war was on they actually removed all of the stained glass to make sure they would not be destroyed. Most of the stained glass dates from the 1500's. I was very impressed by it's huge size windows and there beauty.
I spent quite awhile at the street flea markets this morning. I couldn't belive how they blocked off seveal streets one block from my hotel. It was so busy and there must have been over a thousand people set up. I found two little brass ornements, one owl and one medallion lion which can be put on the wall as a small towel ring I guess. I was looking at a small clean and nice patterned rug and it was offered to me for 50c and I actually turned it down. If i had been at home I would certainly have bought it. Having started a conversation over this rug I spent about 3/4 hour visiting with the family who had the stall. They spoke English so well and the son worked in a bank and travellled a lot for work and he needed his English for that. I still can have the bike for a few hours yet but it is already almost 8:00 PM so I probably will turn it in soon and then find a bite to eat and call it a busy long day. There is a McDonald's here. I still haven't ate at one yet.
Well I guess I have rambled on for quite a bit so I wil close for now. Tommorow I am definely leaving with a purpose to arrive at the town where Angela and Mathias live. It will be a long train trip for sure. Take care everyone and buy for now, Dan
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