Weigh house

The Waag (weigh house) has been built in 1667 and is located across from the City Hall, this building was used for weighing goods to levy taxes. It now is a national monument. The white relief you see is a replacement of the original which started to crack.


The weighing house in it's surrounding...

Gouda Town Hall 2.

Two more shots of the Town Hall. On saturdays there is market, so I couldn't get a full view.



Like a ship.. heading for some destination..

Gouda Town Hall

Those white spires in the back is where we are going...


In the spacious triangular Markt of Gouda is an imposing Town Hall, a Late Gothic building (1449-59) which was originally surrounded by a moat. The handsome external staircase in Renaissance style was added in 1603. After undergoing a series of alterations the Town Hall was returned to its original aspect during restoration work carried out between 1947 and 1952. On the east wall is a carillon which rings every half hour, with moving figures representing the granting of the town's charter by Count Floris V in 1272.


Visitors can see the interior. In the Trouwzaal (Marriage Hall) is a 17th century tapestry by David Rufelaer made in Gouda. Tomorrow more on the townhall.

Street View

‘Just’ a street in Gouda. No that is not really true… it is located in the historical centre so it is special, but not that special, every town and city (apart from the ones where there has been fighting in WWII) has such city centers. With the sun shining these streets are great to stroll.


This house is from 1643, what it must have seen passing by trough all these centuries… Imagine when you lean to a structure beam, 400 years somebody must have done the same but it is very likely that our world view are so different we would consider eachoter aliens.


A house from the 1700’s. What I find fascinating is that there are about 5 building styles you find in the old towns. The first style is wood, to find these is very rare. Amsterdam has a few and some cities do. These survived because they have some event or emotion attached to it (for one in Amsterdam see here).
Then they started to build in stone, as you seen in the posting of yesterday. What followed then are the 1700’s, like this building, the preceding style was looked down upon, and replaced by the looks of the new time. The 1800’s had a similar style. Moving to the 1900’s the complete building would be destroyed and replaced. But by that time there came the need for expansion of cities so they build new outside the city walls (the city walls and canals were demolished around 1860 when the industrialization started).

What happened over the centuries is that they only modernized the frontals, the structure remained the one of the first house. That is fascinating many people actually live in houses which date back to the first house build on that spot..

The Four Crowned

I have been to Gouda, I guess you know, the town of cheese and wax candles and since recent years with a very large muslim community which is leaving a mark on the city. But that is an other story.

If you ever have the chance to visit the town and have a good look around you will be amazed by the amount of history it contains. It supplied me with a large stock of photos for Daily.

This is the house of the four crowned, the late gothic façade is dated from around 1530. The rich decorated frieze displays the patron saints of the construction workers. It was thought that it was a ‘guild house’ but it appeared to be ‘just’ a house which a certain John the Mason build for himself.


The four construction workers refused in the year 306 to make an idol of Emperor Diocletianus and to worship idols. The were put in lead boxes and thrown in the river alive. In the fries we see them at work. In the middle stood probably a Virgin Mary (I uploaded a large format so you can zoom in on the images).


I

All Peacefull

A quiet and peacefull shot of the Woerden Castle... both of them..

Queen of the Proms

My niece Iris (in black) had her prom night a few days ago. High school proms are not a tradition but is a new thing taken over from America. It is not really the same because it starts before the exams. Anyway Iris was looking as I never has seen her before.


My brother in law was able to borrow somebody's car...


I suggested I could rent diamonds if she liked but my niece really didn't care so much for it...


That is something I even never have done.. walking down a red carpet... My broter in law really was proud that evening!

The Ham Tower

I took this shot from the train, close to Woerden. It is the 'Ham' tower, it is a medieval remainder of a castle. In some war it was under siege and the enemy wanted to starve them out. But it took long, so long that the army was getting impatient. When the people in the castle put a huge lam’s leg for the birds to pick on the tower. They decided to let it be and left.

The truth was that it was the last food they had... Hmm, what can I learn from this?

Old Shop

Sometimes you encounter shops that make you wonder; how can they survive? This is one, a shoe shop in Dordrecht.. Looking at the front and the goods in the shop window, it's almost like a time warp of 50 years...

Dordrecht

Yesterday was a dull rainy day. I went to the centre after work to meet a friend. To reach the centre quickly I park my car in the town besides Dordrecht, that is in Zwijndrecht. Between the towns is a river. I use a water taxi to get across and directly I am in the centre.


In the centre is an old impressive church. The town of Dordrecht is one of the oldest cities of Holland. Very intresting to give a visit if you are here in the area.. not too far from Rotterdam.

Castle Attic

This is a shot of the attic of the castle, under the roof is a 'ballroom'. A nice place for a party or meeting. The only thing I personally pitty is that the castle of Woerden doesn't have the atmosphere of an old castle.

Concordia

This is the Concordia which is a restaurant in the centre. As long as I know this restaurant feels never having changed since the 70's. When you enter you feel you go through a small 'time warp'. The interior reminds me of the type of restaurants my parents used to take me when I was small.

Whenever I take a look through the windows there doesn't seem to be much activity going on.

Buttermilk

If you are in Holland and you want to drink some milk take a similar looking mug but then one which is mainly blue, the red color indicates that it is buttermilk..

Shots from the Dom Tower

Yesterday I did a post on the Dom tower. Vogon asked if I had pictures from the tower and actually I have a set of photos. You can visit the tower daily.

I receive almost everyday a comment of Vogon, many people are a part of my blogging life now, but we never have met or spoken in real life, yet we keep an eye on each others blogs...from all over the world...:)
So Vogon, this one is on your request...Cheers from Marcel


When you are on the top and look down, this is part of what you see. Utrecht has a lot of canals with cute little houses...


Looking a bit more straight you see the street plan of the city, all centred around the canals.


The tower used to be a part of the church, but a hurricane destroyed the middle part, it has never been restored.


The cloister garden has been preserved. It is a great place to escape the city for a moment.


Huge stone fence... generations and generations of people have stood there, the views must have been different though.


Inside is a 'Carillion', it noticed it plays some times the tunes of 'The Sound of Music'.....


A bit more to the right you can see the city hall, the big building on the right.

Dom Toren

The 'Dom' tower of Utrecht. Until recent times the highest building of The Netherlands.. build around 1500 or so. I love this tower for me it is the symbol of home.

Three Centuries

This photo is a continuation of yesterday. The houses you see are located just besides the 'Dom' tower. The house at the left is from 1735, the gate from 1634 (don't know what its history is but it leads to the St. Martin park/guarden) and the house on the right is from 1860.

Thanks for the comments of yesterday! I do feel that you life ones and schould go for the best and develop yourself. Starting your own business is scary in a way, but I look forward to the energy it gives! Any way still will take about a year before I really could start.

Have a nice day today!

Terrace

Yesterday I had a day of from work, this to meet with my fellow students in Utrecht (I do a study in eLearning, multimedia and consultancy in the evening). We meet at the chamber of commerce to follow two presentations on starting you own company. Maybe we will start some joint venture. Anyway afterwards we went for a drink at the 'dome square'. I made a shot while we set at the terrace. Tomorrow another one then I will tell something about the buildings you see.

Duck

At the Queens day fair somebody was displaying (some of) his animals. One of them was a very tame duck. I noticed that it was not shy or troubled by the noise and all the people.
It grew up in a family and has the habit of following the owner all the day as he goes through the house. So funny, I decided to give this duck some ‘famous-ity’ at the daily bloggers community!

Jewellery with Wooden Shoes

Wooden shoes also come as jewellery, what do you think girls?... :)

Concrete and Nature

In general I am not excited about modern urban art, but this I like. It's a 'menhier' group, close to my office. Is 'menhier' the correct word? I looked it up in the dictionary but I coudn't find the correct English word, neither the correct Dutch word.
Any way, I find it an interesting idea, it's a combination of concrete and nature.

One lonely bike

But no wait, it is a billboard..

Castle of Woerden by Night

The castle of Woerden by night... I have found out how the 'slow shutter' of my camera works. I tried before to make a picture at night time, but it never really worked.
I have never done a real good posting of the castle either. It is close to my house. But then the building is not that spectacular. It is one of the few remainders of a fast amount of castles which used to be located here. Woerden previously used to be town at the border of two countries, Holland owned by the 'Dukes of Holland' and Utrecht, owned by the Bishop of Utrecht. There have been a lot of fighting between those states. But that is long ago and most of the defence works of these days are gone. The castle is now a restaurant and party centre.

Ghosts in buns

Oh dear, these buns come with ghosts...