Poland, Slovakia, Netherlands - July 2018

To boil it down, today was all about cheese and modern architecture. As part of our "two cities per day" approach, we took the train to Gouda (yes, there is a town named Gouda and they DO make cheese!) at 9AM for the weekly cheese market there.  Half the tourists in Holland must have shown up, as well as most of the city of 70,000.  We enjoyed the cheesie atmosphere, did an in-depth tour of the large cathedral, climbed our first windmill, and at noon, took a train back to Rotterdam to get to know the city where we have been staying since Tuesday but haven’t yet explored.  The Rotterdam experience was focused on the modern architecture the city is known for.  The destruction of the city by the German Luftwaffe in May 1940, as horrific as it was, prepared the way for one of Europe's most modern cities to take shape, and the experimental architecture is now famous. A few other neat experiences were thrown into the afternoon, and we sewed it all up with a Mediterann...

For the next few days, we’re on a “two city per day” regime. There are a dozen Dutch cities within an hour’s train ride of our Rotterdam base. We’ve chosen seven that we want to take in - at least to see the highlights - between now and flight departure time on Sunday.  Hence, no more sleep-ins!  To paraphrase a sign I saw in a cafe recently, “ Drink coffee! Sightsee! You can sleep when you’re dead.” Not only does the Bilderberg Parkhotel serve a good breakfast buffet, it’s also next to a Metro station and a tram stop, so Rotterdam Central Station is just three minutes away, if we time it right.  By 9AM, we were on a train to The Hague, which is just half an hour from Rotterdam. Being the seat of government for the Netherlands, the sight of the UN World Court, and the third largest city in the country, it was on our “must-see” list. The Hague is a brilliant mix of exquisite historic buildings and modern high-rises. Following a quick lunch at a terrasse, we got a train to...