Dutch street names .. lots of vowels!
We walked our luggage (in the rain) to the train station and bought our tickets. Jan saved our bacon in determining which train to get on. The name 'Delft' didn't appear on any of the reader boards on the lower level. She remembered that the train we took from Amsterdam had an end destination of Vlissingen with a stop at Delft. She found the track that the next one was arriving on and we jumped aboard! From Haarlem to Heemstede-Aerdenhout, Leiden Centraal, Den Haag Laan v NOI, Den Haag HS, then to .. Delft.
The Delft train station is very modern and clean. We had an idea where the hotel was and we started walking. Right out of the train station .. a spinning wind mill!
More on this church in a bit. We stopped at their reader board and found out that an organ concert will be held tomorrow night! We're excited. We made it to our hotel and checked-in and dropped off our luggage in our room and headed out to discover more of Delft.
We headed back to the Old Church but were greeted with a view of the New Church! ('Nieuwe Kerk'). We'll visit this one .. tomorrow, along with the Vermeer Museum and the 8-pm concert at the Old Church.
The Old Church .. it was founded on the site of previous churches in 1246. The tower and four turrets were added in 1325-50 and dominated the townscape for a century and a half until the taller New Church was built. Impressive stained glass windows all around the church!
The organ, built in 1857, is very impressive. It'll be fun listening to it tomorrow.
About 400 notable people are entombed here, including Johannes Vermeer.
Another beautiful church! We were getting hungry but we wanted to find the main town square. It was 'market day'! Yay!
Town hall is in the background.
The New Church is in this pic's background.
We found a fish and chips restaurant close by for lunch. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel for a rest.
Delft is a quintessential Dutch town! Canals, churches, historical neighborhoods. It was an important market center back in the 1500's.
After our rest we walked east to see where the Royal Blue pottery factory was located. But first we wanted to check out the remaining town gate, built in the 1400's.
25,000 students at the Delft University of Technology. On our walk along a canal there were lots of classroom and dormitory buildings and the crew facility, which must've been having a party and rowing practice.
On our walk back to the hotel we stopped by the town square and almost all of the market stalls were gone.
A good day. A very picturesque town. More discovery tomorrow. An organ concert! A visit to see and experience Vermeer! New Church visit!
And some rest tonight.
Take care,
Jan & Joe
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