Museum de Lakenhal and Gouda

We had no visitors this week nor did we visit anyone else but the boys and I (well, probably mostly just I) were still keen to do some touristy stuff. On Tuesday we check out Leiden's own Museum de Lakenhal. I had always known about this museum which houses Leiden's art collection but I guess I was saving it for a rainy day. But... it hasn't rained much this summer so I said the heck with it and just went.
 The building itself used to be the the place where cloth makers brought their products to be inspected and weighed. While most of it has been updated for use as a museum they have left several rooms untouched. While touring one such room Leif exclaimed that we should 'do this to our house' referring to the oak paneled walls, gilded wallpapers, delftware tiled fireplace, and leaded windows. The boy has good taste.
  In its art collection are the works of several well-known Leiden artists including Lucas van Leyden, Jan Steen, and Rembrant van Rijn. The Rembrant is a very early work by the artist and lacked his signature chiaroscuro style. I would not have been able to pick it out as one of his. The placard said that it was the earliest solo signed work of his existing oeuvre. The Lucas van Leyden Last Judgement triptych, which originally hung in Leiden's Pieter's Kerk, is enormous and impressive. Trying to explain the iconography to a three-year-old was a bit challenging; one side of the painting displays a Boschian style hell filled with grotesque demons and fire. Luckily Leif was more interested in the reason that there were so many naked people in the work. I began telling him my whole spiel about how the human body is beautiful and how often in this time period souls were depicted as naked people and how people come into the world naked and so forth. He seemed to consider this information and then said "It was probably hot outside."
  The Lakenhal is pretty small and manageable but, even so, we did not see the everything (kids!). Luckily with the museum pass we purchased when we first arrive, entry is free so I look forward to spending some rainy mornings there in the Fall.  

On Thursday we went to Gouda (pronounced more like 'Howda') to see it's famous cheese market. It is a pretty touristy affair complete with giant wheels of cheese, horse drawn wagons, and actors in wooden shoes.  As in ages past, the market only happens on Thursdays from June to August. I was hoping to take some of our visitors there but no one was here on a Thursday and time is running out. Since we had no other plans and the weather was nice I decided that this was the week to go. I got the kids up, dressed and fed them, and then husseled to the train station to catch the 9:08 to Gouda. The ride was about 35 minutes so we arrived right on time for the 10:00 market.
  As promised giant orange wheels of cheese were laid out on blankets in front of the waag. In the good ole days farmers brought their cheeses here to be graded by officials and then sold in this customary set of haggeling hand slaps (see video). It was unclear to me if any of the people putting on the show were real farmers or officials but it was entertaining none the less. We watched for a bit, got a free piece of cheese and then walked around the rest of the market.

  Right off the market is the longest church in the Netherlands, Sint Janskerk. As seen from above, it is in the typical cross shape of the churches of the period but the nave is unusually long. It is also famous for its stained glass windows and boasts that they comprise 50% of all the 16th century stained glass in the Netherlands. They were enormous and impressive. The compositions were so busy that they really deserved to be studied. Unfortunately I had to make sure that my two fellow tourists didn't harm themselves as they careened around the large stone pillars and an unforgiving flag stone floor. Needless to say my attention was a bit frayed.
 
Our church tour ended abruptly when Leif decided that picking his nose was more interesting than the impossibly large colorful windows all around us. I really don't care if Leif picks his nose but sometimes he goes too far and gives himself a nose bleed. Wanting to avoid that possibility seeing as we were a train ride away from home I told him to stop picking it. He immediately melted into a full-on tantrum. Since his third birthday, Leif has been doing this more and more frequently. To try to curb this behavior I usually double down on whatever I am try to get him to do. Like I said I really don't care if he picks his nose but, since he threw a fit, I had stand firm in my directive. After a minute or so, not wanted to disturb the other tourists who had also paid 4.50 Euro to see the place, I dragged him out of the church while his screams of "I want to pick my nose!" echoed around the vaulted ceilings.

  Leif sobered up pretty quickly outside. We grabbed some sandwiches to eat on the train and headed back to the station. Our timing was perfect and we were able to jump on a train headed to Leiden immediately. Since I had the stroller, I had to enter the train doors that are handicap accessible. We found some seats just inside the doors and sat down to eat our lunch as the train lurched out of the station. I noticed a few odd stares from my fellow riders but I just chalked it up to the fact that I was spooning out baby food on a train. It was only when we pulled into the station that I noticed the signage on the walls indicating that this was a silent train car. In retrospect we had not been very loud as we mostly sat eating our food but I'm sure we were not completely silent. Oh well.

Train!