The Netherlands Travel Recap - Amsterdam Day Trips to Gouda, Delft, & The Hague

Let's talk Gouda, Delft, and The Hague...

Although Amsterdam had plenty to do, places to see, and restaurants to visit, we wanted to step outside of the city and explore a few additional places while we were in The Netherlands. 

Gouda 

So Gouda is in South Holland, The Netherlands, and is about 45 or so minutes from Amsterdam by train. It may sound familiar because of its namesake cheese! Fun trivia fact: the cheese is pronounced "HOW-dah" not "GOO-dah"...so I've been pronouncing it incorrectly this whole time. Awesome.

It's a medieval town that has the most amazing 15th century town hall and a Market square where they still hold their cheese market (between April and September) and weighing station. It's where they agree on price of cheese and they have done it the same way for centuries!

We ate so much gouda cheese at the Cheese Museum, and even had a little tasting of various aged gouda at the Gouda Cheese Experience.

Have you ever had gouda cheese? I learned that my preferred gouda cheese is aged a year! 

Gouda had cheese shops and canals all over and plenty of walkable streets. Simply wandering around and taking in the sights of the town would be enough to make a visit worth it. 

While walking around would have been plenty we did have a few things on our list that we wanted to do. We stopped in for a tour of the Kamphuisen Siroopwafels factory. The recipe used here is from 1810! And honestly I hope they never change a thing because they were the most amazing treats.

We got to see the line in action making the wafels all the way from dough to finished product.

And we got to taste a siroopwafel straight from the factory line. Can you say fresh?! 

We also got to try a little syrup waffle liquor that the locals use in their coffee or to pour over pancakes and waffles. It was strong. We poured it over a little cake thing they gave us.

Delft

We also visited Delft, which is a town famous for its blue and white pottery. Ok there is more to it than that of course. It is also the burial site of famous Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer and houses the royal family's tombs. Delft was at one point the seat of the royal House of Orange...which I had to do research on because I didn't know how much about the royal family of The Netherlands prior to this trip. 

We focused on the Royal Delft earthenware factory, which is from the 17th century, for a tour and to visit the museum.  

The porcelain is handcrafted and the pottery house even created the current monarch's dinner service pieces. The designs are amazing -- especially when you think about the fact that many of the pieces are handmade by master craftsmen and artisans. They even get to put their initials on the bottom of each of their pieces along with the initials of the house.

Could you image having a royal dinner on that dinner service?! I love anything royal so seeing plates was really special for me. Yep, plates.

The process was not at all what I expected it to be. The ink actually goes on as black/gray and then in the firing process it brightens to the gorgeous blue hues. 

And you can see an actual artisan in action too. This gentleman in the photo below was working on a series of vases when we were there. He had two painted and was working on a third. I was surprised at how steady his hand was but I guess that's what mastery looks like! And he didn't seem bothered at all by the guests who came by to watch.

The Hague

We continued on from Delft to The Hague. They are half hour train ride apart and their stations were oddly similar looking. 

As an attorney, I geeked out about going to The Hague because I recently represented a client based in Aruba and we had to battle with Plaintiff's counsel about proper service, which needed to be done through The Hague.

The Hague is the seat of the Dutch parliament, the king's work palace (Noordeinde Palace), and the United Nation's International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court. 

Noordeinde Palace is the workplace of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima since he became King in 2013 and it was literally right off the street. We walked by it before realizing what we were looking at! I wish my home office looked like that.

We should have noticed something was special about the street before we got to the palace because I noticed crowns hanging over the roadway.

The Peace Palace was not actually open to us but there was a visitor's center with an interesting exhibit and you could learn more about it. We did see a bunch of people leaving in suits so I guess they work there. Maybe I should try to get into international law?!

There's also a World Peace Flame right on the property that never goes out. 

We also saw an exhibit at Lange Voorhout Palace featuring M.C. Escher. I had never heard of him before but my husband was really excited for it. M.C. Escher stands for Maurits Cornelis Escher, who was Dutch graphic artist. His sketches were fascinating and the palace was breathtaking.  

We returned to Amsterdam after each of the day trips and then continued onto the Belgium. I'll share more about that in a future post. Thank you for reading!