Thursday 2 November
This morning my crew walked into town to catch the market, and Mate was delighted to find it was a ‘proper’ one, with a colourful array of beautifully fresh fruit and vegetables, and a stall offering only fungi, but more types of edible mushrooms than she knew existed. 
There was also a wide range of fresh and smoked fish and shellfish, breads and bakery goods, cheeses (as well as every vintage of the eponymous Gouda) and a variety of other goods.
After a reviving coffee and samples of excellent local patisserie at a heated pavement café, they wandered through the shopping area to visit St John’s Church, the longest in the Netherlands at 123 metres, and famous for the ‘Gouda Windows’, enormous panels of stained glass dating from the Sixteenth Century. The building was originally dedicated to the Roman Catholic faith, but since the Reformation was donated to the Protestant community and now represents the Dutch Reformist tradition. The organ is stunning, pipes towering to the roof, and the floor is laid with flagstones carved in memory of wealthy and influential parishioners who were buried in the church until 1832.
Walking back home along some of the attractive canal sides in the town centre, they noticed square brass plaques inlaid into the pavement. These are engraved with the names of Jewish people who lived in the houses above the plaques, who were lost to the Holocaust during the German occupation of the Second World War – a simple but powerful memorial.