Gouda Museum + Walk - Private Art Tours

Ferdinand Bol, War Council of Gouda, the colonel to the right, and captains of four city districts. All are urban elite. Shown in the Civic Guard Hall.

Gouda Museum + Walk (Tuesday-Saturday only)

Join me for a fine day out in Gouda. The local history and art Museum of Gouda is housed in a former convent, which was emptied with force during the Protestant revolutionary takeover of the 1560’s. The Museum is nice in fine art, applied art and historical presentations. One of the characteristic local product is the Gouda long stem pipe for smoking tobacco. It was probably the first mass-market breakable article which happened to be so breakable that it created its own resupply demand market. Another popular local product are thin cookie wafers filled with thick, sticky syrup: Goudse Wafels. Finally, the local Gouda earthenware is famous for its subdued colours.

Gouda is a well preserved city south of Amsterdam. It is also the home of the huge St Jan, a fine Gothic church filled with a large numbers and outstanding quality stained glass windows – actually considered by specialists as the best in the world. (Closed on Sunday!) We could well combine a visit to these two buildings side by side. The French cathedral in Chartres is dark, dark, dark but this one is light filled and still intact after 500 years.

Close by, outside, is a rare example of a Motte, a fortification hill dating from the Middle Ages.

Gouda has quirky small canals and also regular canals. We will also see the locks and sluices that allowed interior traffic between major cities in the Dutch Republic. The resulting interior shipping can be seen in the Vermeer painting View of Delft.

The front of the town hall on the market is over-restored, but the inside is a beautiful old style boardroom.

As a bonus, we can visit an over-the-top French carnival-style pub, built in lavish style with ornaments and mirrors, an over-the-top fairground-style cafe.

Gouda museum, a view into the Civic Guard Hall.

Gouda museum, a view from above into the Civic Guard Hall.

Gouda museum, the attic with a good overview of Gouda earthenware.

An XXL miniature model of Gouda c. 1500, exactly made according to an old map.

Gouda museum, an ancient apothecary.

Gouda museum, detail of an amusing Jan Steen painting showing a market scene.

Larger images are available on this old school site.

Tour by professional Art History scholar with excellent teaching skills. Specialist in Fine art and Design, Architecture and History. VIP entry.

Business card. The logo refers to Vermeer.

HOW TO GET THERE

Gouda is easy to reach with public transport, by train, just over an hour from Amsterdam. I hold a Dutch Railways rebate card. For this train tour I can offer you a special rebate of 40% for three separate adult railway tickets. This makes it economical for you as clients. I can join you from your hotel or from the Amsterdam train station.

Various other options are open to you: a) You can hire a car and drive it yourself, and I will join you starting in Amsterdam and will advise you about the best route. b) We can hire a professional taxibus service at around E 70 per hour for about 4 to 5 hours. On top of that you will pay me as the specialist guide. This is the more expensive option. It allows you to visit the polders, grasslands, tree nurseries just outside Gouda.