Gouda record stores

I asked the AI to create a logo for me with the title Gouda Records, but it wouldn't comply. First time I ask something from ChatGPT (well, second time really - the first time, I asked it to write a record review and got a whole lot of -admittedly well written- nonsense), and all I got was instructions on how to draw it myself - as if I needed help on the ideas department! ChatGPT, you're all A and no I! Go back to writing some fool's doctoral thesis, and leave the creative stuff to us real men! See how nice I did it myself on MS Paint?

Anyway, what you may not know (I, at least, didn't, until my first visit to the Netherlands) is that Gouda is actually a city. For everyone in Greece, gouda is what you use when you want less flavor in any cheese-related dish. It melts quite nicely, adds some grease and a bit of yellow color to your food, and dilutes the taste of other cheeses when you use it as part of a cheese mix. But, to be fair, the only gouda we know in Greece is the "young" variety. During my last visit to Gouda, we sat at the Kaasbar on Market Square and tasted about a dozen varieties in various stages of maturing and with various added spices (fennel, chilli, mustard etc.). Fair is fair, there are also some really nice goudas - even young ones can be quite enjoyable when you get that creamy texture right. Back to Gouda the city, it won't surprise you to learn that it's the world capital of gouda cheese, but there's also another delicacy invented here which you should try, and that's the thin caramel cookie the Dutch call stroopwafel. Other than that, there's a marvelous medieval city center with all the trappings of traditional Holland: the canals and cute small bridges to traverse them, typical narrow Dutch houses, cobblestone streets, even windmills. There is also the impressive old Town Hall (ca. 1618) on market square where, every Thursday from April to August, the cheese market takes place: farmers make a public spectacle of auctioning their produce to cheese merchants in the age-old traditional manner, a great photo opportunity for tourists.

On Saturdays, it's just a regular market; you can buy fish, vegetables, a cheap tracksuit or a mobile case. Around the square there are many bars, cafes, and shops, including a record store: Rock Maniac (Markt 11) is of a respectable size for a medium-sized town. Here you'll find a good variety of new vinyl encompassing all genres (usually €25-30), used records (mostly €10-20, some offers for €1,5 or €5), and a rather smaller selection of CD's (new €10-20, used €5). There are two more record stores in the city center: Free Music High Fidelity (Turfmarkt 12) is housed in a well-preserved old Dutch house, situated right on the canal. It has a nice ambience and an eclectic, slightly overpriced, selection of vinyl (new LPs mostly over €35, some used around €15). The focus here seems to be more on hi-fi equipment than on the music. Last but not least (actually my favorite), there's Decades Vinyl & Vintage (Nieuwehaven 326). From the title, I expected to find an antique shop that also sells records; there are a lot of nice antique shops in the town, especially bookstores, some of which also sell records but don't expect to find anything of value there. Decades sells a few ornaments and other bric-a-brac, but it's mainly a real treasure trove of old vinyl; you won't believe how much good stuff there is to find in such a small shop. I was especially impressed by their jazz and soul collection, but there's also a lot of rock, reggae, latin and country. Prices mostly between €7 and €20, but there are also a few crates of offers (€3, also some good stuff here but in below-par condition). 

So that's my report on the record stores of Gouda, the 5th Dutch city I've presented in this blog after Rotterdam, Delft, Deventer, and The Hague. You'll notice that I'm still missing Amsterdam, which is the capital and biggest market for vinyl in the country; that's because, ever since I moved to Holland, each of my visits to Amsterdam is dedicated to a different purpose. If there's any time left for record browsing, I always spend it at Concerto. Given the size of the city, I'd need to plan a whole day trip exclusively for mapping the record store situation, which I aim to do at some point.