Time for one more stop.

When Monday arrived and it was time to head back to Germany none of us was ready to say goodbye to Holland so we made one last stop in the town of Gouda. What a wonderful place to visit! It has a typical Dutch square in the center with a gothic town hall and cheese weighing house in the center, canals, bridges, a windmill and of course CHEESE! One other highlight was the St. John's church. The 16th century stained glass windows in this church are world famous and rightly so. St. John's is the only church in the country in which the original glazing is preserved in its entirety. Each window is incredible, we could have spent hours looking at them. There were viewing telescopes in different places in the church so we could see the detail. How fortunate that the people took the care to remove the windows and hide them in bunkers for safekeeping during the war. There was an exhibition about this and also about the original full size drawings or "cartoons" or "cartons" that still exist and are a valuable treasure for use in restoration and are an art form in their own right.