Canals, colonies, and, of course, cheese: A Gouda walking tour

If you can only name five cities in the Netherlands, Gouda is bound to be one of them. This is no doubt the result of that delicious cheese packed tightly in its own yellow wax jacket, now available across the globe. This tour starts at De Goudse Waag, a museum on the market square. We will of course pop into the Cheese Farmers Co-op (Kaaswinkel Gouda), but you’ll be treated to so much more than cheese during your journey.

As you explore the heart of the old city, walking past picturesque canals and houses that really do belong in 17th century paintings, you’ll hear how Gouda has been both one of the wealthiest, and the poorest of Dutch cities over the centuries.

I’ll tell you how entrepreneurs have been at the heart of many a Gouda story, with some setting sail in search of trade in new lands, and others making the most of opportunities back home. But there are also dark sides to some of these stories, where exploitation, slavery, and religious persecution took place. The era described by many as the “Golden Age” was definitely not so for everyone.

As you pass some of the city’s older streets, I’ll let you in on the origins of their names, like Peperstraat (Pepper Street) which goes back to Gouda’s spice trade. You’ll also stroll past a long canal known as the Turfmarkt, meaning the Peat Market because this is where peat was bought and sold until the 1500s.

Along the way, you’ll have the chance to:

• Discover the location of a clandestine church from a time when it was forbidden to worship publicly as a Catholic (St. John’s Church today)
• Spot the remains of the medieval Gouda Castle, locally known as Kasteel van Gouda, and visit Museum Gouda with its charming courtyard
• Treat yourself to some of South Holland’s finest chocolate at Chocoladeatelier PUUR, which sources from ethical farms where workers are treated with respect and rewarded fairly
• Hear about the tragic fate of some of Gouda’s Jewish families during the Holocaust, for whom markers (or, ‘stumbling stones’) have been left on the pavements on Lage Gouwe
• Learn about the Houtman brothers, who were probably the first Dutchmen to capture slaves
• Stop at Slijterij en Bierwinkel Den Gouwen Aar (today, a liquor store) and find out how the city once hosted over 200 breweries and quite a few monasteries inside its walls
• Find out why Gouda has been fighting rising sea levels since forever, and how Stadhuis van Gouda (the City Hall) was built in the middle of a field to prevent it from catching fire
• Take the quintessential Dutch photo of ‘t Slot windmill and tulips in springtime

There are also plenty of places to stop on the way to pull up a chair, order a coffee or a beer, and watch the world walk, or cycle, past. By the end of this walk around Gouda, you’ll have a sense of the city’s complex past and what makes it unique today.