Aachen, Germany & The Gouda Experience

For Memorial Day weekend, we took a quick family trip to The Netherlands for some family time.

On our way there we stopped in Aachen, Germany to visit the cathedral there.  This cathedral is OLD!  Charlemagne's throne is here on the upper level as well as beautiful artwork & a chandelier from the 1000's.  Absolutely spectacular.  I love experiencing history here in Europe. 

There were also some Roman Baths / Hot Springs right in the middle of the city.  I loved visiting the excavation site to see original tiles & baths carved from the stone centuries ago.

There were many natural fountains around these baths . . . though they smelled like sulfer.

After a quick exploration of Aachen, we made our way through Belgium & up to The Netherlands.  (Three countries in ONE day.  Man, I love Europe so much!)

Our first stop was Gouda, Netherlands.  And yes, Gouda is known for one thing . . . 

CHEESE!

We visited the Gouda Experience to learn how Gouda cheese is made first hand.

The museum is SO MUCH FUN.  There were plenty of neat little interactive areas we could dress up, play around, push buttons, & touch things.  The kids LOVED it.

All the kids loved "milking the cow."  Bladen beat us all at filling up the bucket with milk.  He was an amazing cow milker.  Once we milked the "cow," a lady came by with cups of fresh milk (straight from a cow) to try.  Most of the kids almost gagged on it.  Lorien & I LOVED it.  It was so creamy & delicious.

We made our way through the museum learning how cheese is made from fresh milk.  Gouda cheese has a classic recipe that is shared all around the world.  It was really interesting seeing it each step of the way.

We learned how to age cheese on wooden planks & each of us took a turn "turning" the cheese over.  We had no idea how heavy cheese could be.  We raced to see who could flip over the cheese wheels the fastest.

Before the taste testing area, there was an area where we could dress up & take pictures with cheese.  I think the kids had WAY too much fun with this.  They kept changing clothes & posing hilariously with their cheese wheels.  I love my kids so much.  Their sense of humor cracks me up.

After dressing up, we made our way to the taste testing gallery.  They brought us each a little container with 5 different types of Gouda cheese, cheese crackers, & some dill mustard to dip our cheese in.  We got to try all 5 different aged gouda cheeses.  My favorite was the 1 year cheese.  It was perfect.  The kids enjoy the mid-aged cheese (6 months old).

We ended up buying 1 year old & 1 mid-aged cheese chunk & 3 bottles of the dill mustard to take home with us.  Europe has ruined me for cheese.  I've become a cheese snob.  Cheese is heaven if it's done correctly & there's nothing in the world like Dutch cheese dipped in dill mustard.  It's heaven on earth.

After filling up on delicious cheese, we made our way through Gouda & found a little stroop waffle stand & bought some stroop waffles.

Then we drove an hour to the campground we were staying at.  I swear to you, everything is an adventure with our family.  We got there & they accidentally gave one of our "cabins" to someone else so we only had 1 cabin instead of 2.  We asked if we could all fit in the 1 & they told us no so 4 of us would have to sleep in the van while the other 4 got to sleep in the cabin.  We got the 4 girls moved into the cabin & the main office called us to let us know they were cleaning a new cabin to give to us so we'd be okay for the night.  THANK HEAVENS.

Once we got into the cabins we realized that it was one of those places where you have to bring everything with you.  No soap, no toilet paper, no sheets, no towels, NOTHING.  And we kind of brought NOTHING with us.  Oh well.  We rented sheets from the office, but they were out of towels until the next day.

You'd think that would stop my kids from spending the evening swimming at the pool, but you'd be wrong!  No towels?  No problem.  They swam for 2 hours anyway, then froze as we walked back to the cabins soaking wet with nothing to dry us off or warm us up.  We still had a blast.  A few jumping jacks did the trick.