Where will life lead me?: April 21, 2012 Delft, the porcelain and the town.

So, after we got a little damp attempting to watch the flower parade in Noordwijk we got back on the bus (a few blocks from the parade) and we were off to the town of Delft. Never heard of the town? Maybe heard of the porcelain, but have no clue what else might have come from the area? Well lets see if we can rectify that.

Delft is one of the prettiest town/cities I have seen in Holland (of course this will take more travel to confirm). It is also one of Holland's historical centers and home to the Dutch royal family, the House of Orange. William of Orange (aka William the silent...not because he didn't talk but because he knew when it was best not to) was killed and buried in Delft in 1584.

Vermeer (painter) was born and lived in Delft. IF you don't know of his work, well the Girl with the Pearl Earring (famous painting/then movie) was painted by Vermeer in Delft. On the science side, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (inventor of the microscope) was also from Delft.

In the 17th century some travelers (they did a lot of trading with the orient for nutmeg, etc) brought back some porcelain from the orient. It was so well liked that some of the towns people decided to make some pieces with the oriental blue and white pattern as their inspiration. They found a unique way to get their blue when it was fired in the kiln, and next thing you knew, Delft Blue was the porcelain/pottery to own.

Enough of the lesson on Delft (although I would really love to go back to this town in the future and spend more time). After we dried off a bit on the bus then we arrived at one of the few Delft factories in Delft. I say few because there are only a few that make the actual hand painted delftware (not the cheap knockoff). You may not know what delftware looks like, but most people know it as the vibrant blue and white porcelain, such as:

Yeah OK, this is the kind of thing that most will want, but they have so much more...

this shows the steps to painting and finishing the Delft porcelain.

As I said, traditionally the Delftware is blue and white, but I have found that I tend to prefer the more colorful version:

Just a few pictures outside the factory while waiting for others to come out:

Then it was on to Delft, the town/city for a little stroll:

If you have ever watched the movie "girl with a pearl earring" you will recall where she stopped in the middle of town on this dial, looking back then forward, making a choice. (of course she was looking back at the protestant part of town, her home, and forward to the Catholic part of town).

One of the stores that sells "real" delftware...look above the shop sign...there is delftware tiling on the wall.

Oh Holland, I do love your cheese!

This was the butter building...yep, it says so right on it.

This was the weighing building...for the butter...its a few doors down from the butter building, but there is a canal behind both, so the products could be moved over by little canal boats.

This was the meat building and to the left (down a street you cant see in this, was and is the fish market).

Funny thing, despite the typical askew perspective that many pictures will have when you are pointing the camera up at them...this church tower appears to be straight, when in fact, it is off by 2 meters...so it is the leaning tower of Delft (just a knick name for it).

Holland had many secret churches. This is one of them in Delft. It also was a brewery.

I thought this quite pretty. It depicts a heart, a cross, and an anchor. The pastor in the church explained that if ones heart is anchored in the church there will always be love and faith.

The pews were not on a level surface, instead they rose up so that each person could see.

air vent in the ceiling.

Once outside the secret church, it was on to more pictures, and of course there were many canals, so there are canal pictures.

This picture makes it a little easier to see that the tower is indeed off by a few meters from being straight.

This is one of the narrowest homes in Holland. (really, it is)

This guy reminded me of Paris. He was playing the stereotypical French song.

Delft lampole

This is part of the inside of The Golden ABC...a lovely restaurant in Delft that has amazingly good Poffertjes and Pannenkoek

And what trip to Holland would be even close to complete without a trip to the cheese sellers.

After Delft we drove a short ways to The Hague, where our hotel was located. It was a 4 star hotel, but in a lovely part of The Hague...with lots to do within walking or taxi/tram distance. Some chose to go to Amsterdam, some to Haarlem, some stuck a little closer to the hotel...I was one of those people...mainly because somehow on the drive there I had started to feel like I had a cold coming on...no fun :(

Near the hotel was the Madurodam. It's a unique place with many famous Dutch buildings in scale size, about 1150 of them. It just so happens that the Queen (Queen Beatrix had been there earlier in the day). Here are a few examples of the models in Madurodam: