Gouda & Rotterdam

Having spent some time travelling on and reviewing the Dutch rail network (read about that here), I had the rest of the day to explore some more of The Netherlands and so started heading towards another of the country’s major cities, Rotterdam. However, before making it to Rotterdam, there was one more town I wanted to visit. Gouda.

Gouda is a town with almost 900 years of history, with its name first appearing in 1139. The town sits mid-way between the cities of Utrecht and Rotterdam and, of course, is most famous for its cheese! To reach the historic town centre from the railway station, you cross the canals that form a defensive ring around the town. During WW2, attempts were made to fill in the canals, however protests from residents ensured they remained functional, and they now provide a beautiful border around the town.

The main reason I had decided to jump off the train at Gouda was to pick up some cheese to take home with me and so I headed to the Gouda Cheese Experience, the town’s premier tourist destination for cheese lovers! A tour round the ‘experience’ costs €16 for adults and takes between 60-90 minutes and allows you to learn all about Gouda cheese and the process of making it. There’s also a café that serves excellent cake (although was ironically out of cheesecake) and a gift shop selling various souvenirs along with the all-important cheese.

As well as being famous for its cheese, Gouda is also famous for the Grote Kerk or St. Jan’s Kerk (Great church or St. John’s church) which is not only the longest church in The Netherlands but also home the country’s most significant collection of stained glass. There’s also a number of museums covering the town’s history, including its canals, along with the historic Waaiersluis (Waaier Locks) to the east of the town.

Having seen some of the town and completed my purchase of the necessary cheese, I headed back to the station to continue my day exploring. From Gouda there are multiple train connections to Rotterdam, with a half hourly ‘Sprinter’ stopping service and a half hourly ‘Intercity’ service that only stops at Rotterdam Alexandra enroute to Rotterdam Centraal.

The city of Rotterdam is the second largest in The Netherlands and is a major part of the country’s economy with Europe’s largest seaport sitting at the end of the ‘New Meuse’ which connects the Rhine with the North Sea. Having been nearly completely destroyed during World War 2, the city has regenerated itself into a major commercial centre.

My first stop having arrived in the city was to spend a couple of minutes in the square outside the station admiring what is one of the most stunning station buildings I’ve seen on my travels. Whilst I accept that’s a bit ‘geeky’, Rotterdam Centraal has been noted on series such as ‘Architecture the Railways Built’ as an excellent example of a modern station.

Having geeked out at the station for a while, I headed towards the ‘New Meuse’ and, having jumped onto one of Rotterdam’s metro lines, the journey just took a couple of minutes to Leuvehaven station. From here it was just a short walk to ‘de Boeg’, a monument commemorating the 3,500 Dutch merchant sailors who lost their lives in WW2, and the Erasmusbrug, a huge bridge finished in 1996 that is the cities most important landmark and a symbol of the city.

During my visit at the start of October I was really lucky with the weather and got to experience a bit of an Indian summer. As it was so nice, I decided to have an Al Fresco lunch next to the Erasmusbrug at ‘Bar-Restaurant Prachtig’, and polished off an excellent burger along with a pint or two whilst enjoying watching barges pass by on the river.

My next stop was a short tram ride back towards Centraal station followed by a ten or so minute walk. Rotterdam Hofplein is a former railway station, just north of the railway lines that run into Centraal station, and sits elevated above what appeared to be quite a hipster part of the city. Hofplein station was in use until 2006 when the RandstadRail was diverted into a tunnel to become part of the Rotterdam Metro, and the station is now open as a small park, with plans for the former railway line to be converted into an elevated walkway similar to the New York Highline.

With my time in The Netherlands coming to an end, it was time to head back to Rotterdam Centraal to catch an Intercity Direct train back to Amsterdam (read about that here). Whilst my time in Rotterdam was brief, I’d certainly recommend visiting the city and I was glad to have seen a few of the famous landmarks as well as the less well known Hofplein.

During my explorations of The Netherlands, I’ve fallen in love with the country and its towns and cities. I always feel my visits have been too short and inevitably want to re-visit everywhere I go, whilst also wanting to explore new places. If you do head to The Netherlands, you definitely don’t need a car, with the railway network connecting pretty much everywhere and every city having an excellent public transport network.