Gouderak 1

In Moordrecht I had to wait for some time because it was raining too hard to continue my trip. When it stopped I travelled to the next village: Gouderak. That lies on the other side of the Hollandsche IJssel river. There was a small ferry that took only a few minutes to get to the other side. Tickets were 1 euro for pedestrians. After arriving on the other side it started raining again, even heavier than before.

I hurried down the dyke to the small shopping centre where the book store with the post office was. Inside were four men drinking coffee. I was offered a cup too. I got the new datestamp and after it almost stopped raining left the shop for the next bus.

Gouderak is a small village that is part of the municipality of Krimpenerwaard in the province of south Holland. It is one of the youngest river villages in the Krimpenerwaard. The first mention of Gouderak is in 1274. A 'rak' is a straight part of a rover between two bends. In the 15th century farmers settle in the area and two centuries later industry is found in Gouderak in the form of roperies and brick works.

In the early 1980s Gouderak got international fame because of a large poison scandal. A new neighbourhood with almost one hundred houses was built on ground that was heavily contaminated with poisonous waste that was dumped into a shallow part of the river. All houses had to be demolished, the ground cleaned and the neighbourhood rebuilt. The work was finished in 2011.

Until 1985 Gouderak was a seperate municipality when it merged into the new municipality of Ouderkerk. Ouderkerk merged with other municipalities into Krimpenerwaard on 1 January 2015.

City/town:         Gouderak

Municipality:     Krimpenerwaard

Area:                10,35 km² (Krimpenerwaard 161,3 km²)

Population:       2.630 (2018) (Krimpenerwaard 56.043, 1 January 2019)

Website:           krimpenerwaard.nl

Post office

Boekhandel Kamerbeek

Kranepoort 18

2831 AK  GOUDERAK

facebook.com/Kamerbeek-Gouderak

Date sent: 14 July 2017

Date postmark: 14 July 2017

Date received: 15 July 2017

Number of days: 1

Envelope in collection: 231