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We spent a swell morning in the town of Gouda today, where my 9-year-old daughter offered up this memorable quote:
Daddy? I forget. Oh wait -- I remember. Daddy -- compared to Gouda, American cheese is vomit.
And I say, if that's all she's learned, this trip has been a huge success.
The longer we're in Europe, the clearer it is that Walt Disney owes all of these countries like a bajillion dollars in copyright violations. For example...
...this lovely townhall (stadhuis) built some 600 years ago (plus or minus) all but demands to have Tinkerbell fly over the top and smack it with a sparkle-pop.
In addition to great food and beautiful buildings (and some incredible stained glass from the 1500s), Gouda reminded me that one of the best parts of revisiting spots from your childhood is finding things you didn't even know you were looking for. I was heading back to our car to pay for another hour of parking when I came across this:
As a kid, I just loved these Dutch street organs, which we routinely found at the mall in downtown Den Haag, with someone shaking a cup of change in time to the music. I haven't seen or heard or thought of one in decades.
Hello, old chum.
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those organs should be outlawed for being too perfectly beautiful...
we DO have these in the states, or have you never seen a TGI Fridays sign? colorful! and, they have all you can eat fried stuff saturdays.
plus, our buildings are newer.
love the cheese comment. but, i still don't understand why i can't buy swiss cheese in switzerland. it's like they don't even know how to make their own national cheese. silly neutral country. so safe, so beautiful, so orderly, so repulsive.