Andrew and I visited Delft on Saturday after a lazy morning of sleeping in (him, he did work all week after all) and a leisurely breakfast.
Delft is on the map as home to both a technical university and the famous blue-painted porcelain. We decided to go ahead and check out the official Royal Dutch museum and factory, and we weren’t disappointed. They do an excellent job presenting the history and process of making the Delft porcelain, including seeing the artists in action. Each piece is handmade and painted and marked with a special symbol that includes the individual artist’s initials and the year, much like the Roycroft artisans’ work in East Aurora. (The Delft factory does also have a less expensive line that is not hand painted but uses transfers and does not include the signature mark.)
After the factory visit, we headed into town for some lunch. There are two churches (one of which leans due to being built on shifting sand, below), a beautiful square and plenty of canals.
Andrew and I followed Rick’s walk and ended up at the other church, which has a climbable tower…if by ‘climbable’ they mean 376 of the steepest, narrowest, claustrophobia-inducing spiral staircase steps I’ve ever encountered. (And we’ve climbed a lot of towers in the last ten years.)
After that effort, we treated ourselves to some gelato (I’m pretty sure one of my choices was actually yogurt–it seemed more refreshing) to finish the walk.
We ended our trip to Delft with drinks on the square and dinner in a square we found tucked away just off the main drag.
We decided we loved Delft (almost as much as Haarlem!) and could see ourselves staying here on a future visit.
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