The great thing about Holland is that you can explore the whole country doing day-trips. I remember well the marketing trips when i worked in research … Rotterdam, Den Haag, Amsterdam … home. My first day trip took me to ‘cheese central’ in the city of Gouda. Small town, but worth seeing and only 1h from Amsterdam Centraal (€24 return)
Gouda museum: Nice overview of pictures of from local artists such as pieter pourbus – the main painter from Gouda born in 1584. You can also learn about Gouda’s history as clay pipe producer, ceramics and candles. It’s not all just about the famous cheese. Ahh … consider getting the annual museum’s pass (EUR59) that allows you access to most museums in holland.
Market & Old city hall: i didn’t have the luck to see the cheese market, which nowadays is only a tourist attraction and is held weekly starting 5 April every Thursday morning. Still, nice to wander across the market and watch the vocal vendors praising their produce. The city hall itself was a bit boring, but some good views on the market.
Cheese museum: pretty small museum to be honest. The most interesting thing was a video highlighting the cheese production process, which i was already familiar with from my time in issad. Otherwise the €4,50 are not so good value (museum pass does not cover this museum). I guess it would be better to see an operating cheese factory instead.
