Those who have been to Gouda...a question...
 

We're driving from Bruges to Amsterdam and want to stop for lunch and see another town briefly (an hour or two). Is Gouda an easy stop? When I say easy I'm refering mainly to traffic and parking (street or lot), I already mapped it and I'm fine with the route. Thanks for any help and recommendations.

- John

The day that I was there about two years ago, both seemed fine. It's a pleasant town. We were glad that we visited.

Yes - very manageable town and a fine fine regional town.
If driving from the south consider deturing via Kinderdijk and its amazing group of working old behemoth windmills in a natural setting - it's just a tad south of Gouda - you do have to get off the main road and take a short ferry across a river at Lek i think but then drive to Kinderdijk and on sweet backroads to Gouda. Easily done and Kinderdijk may be the highlight of your day.
Gouda = "How-dah"

Hi J,

Look for parking lots at both www.viamichelin.com and www.mappy.com

((I))

for kinderdijk: take the A16 E10 autobahn to the A15 freeway just north of Dordrecht - take A15 east to Alblasserdam exit - the Kinderdijk National Windmill Park is a few miles north of town
From Kinderdijk take the car ferry that constantly shuttles across the Lek River to Krimpen a/d Lek and then take lovely rural roads the about 13 miles to Gouda - every Dutch town like Gouda has ample parking garages in the town center, or if can walk a bit street parking around the periphery - wouldn't worry about parking in a town like that.
The Kinderdijk detour would not really take a whole lot of time.

Thanks everyone! And Kinderdijk will definitely be a stop if we have the time, the pics on their website are great. Glad to hear that parking in Gouda should be easy enough since it looks as though I'll have to fork over good $ in Amsterdam to park at our hotel.

Even to park on the street in Amsterdam will cost about $25-30 for 24 hours - anywhere!