Little did I know, but the city that’s responsible for that delicious Gouda cheese is located just a short train ride away from Amsterdam.

Saturday morning afternoon, four of us rode our bikes to Central Station, ready to start our day trip to the city of Gouda.

For visual reference. 

Before we could swipe our cards and board the train, we all had to load more money on.

The public transportation system uses an Ov-chipkaart for travel on trams, metros, busses, trains, etc. Like a Metro card in New York, the Ov-chipkaart is a prepaid card that you swipe before and after your travel. When you walk onto a tram or through the train station, you see machines where you “check-in” by scanning your card and then “check-out” by doing the same at your final destination.

Not really too sure why, but in order to be able to check-in for the…