Netherlands & Belgium 2022 - Day 6 / Delft

Steps today : 26 541 / 17.33km

Delft today, a repeat for me but I thought Frank would like it and this time, unlike with Rotterdam, I was right! He did enjoy it.

We started the day with the intention of taking the ferry as usual, but when we arrived around 8:30 (and didn't see any boats!) we learned the ferry only starts at 9AM on Sundays, so off to the metro it was. I'm glad we did it at least once, why not, but I am so happy we had the FREE ferry which was a much more scenic ride.

It was a short visit to Delft, aside from wandering and eating, all that I had on the agenda to do was climb the tower of New Church... and it was closed! UGH

Instead, we just admired it from a nearby café with my now-usual morning boozy coffee.

Since all we did was ramble, here are some random shots of the day:

I was pleased to see the leaning tower of the Old Church was no longer under wraps! It was a disappointing view last time around. I wonder if the lean is now under control?

Lunch was Italian under a leafy canopy.

Then, back to Amsterdam where all I wanted to do was enjoy the views....  but first, a mission to recover my umbrella! 

I was kicking myself all day for not going back yesterday. Would it be there? Did they find it? Did someone take it?

TADA! I got it back! I had a glass of bubbly to celebrate.

Then, more canal walks...

We ended up in Rembrandt Square again, sat in a café, put on our invisibility cloaks and TRIED to have a drink. No luck, we were ignored... but the cat liked us! We eventually gave up and left.

We went back to Dam Square to sit at the Majestic again. Nice patio, expensive spot! 

I really like this picture of my espresso martini with the Royal Palace in the background.  Was King William in there looking back at me?

... and then back to ferry ....

Today's maps:

Delft

Amsterdam

Netherlands 2018 – Day 8 / Delft

Steps today: 17 221

We didn’t purposely set out to take it easy today, but for some reason we didn’t hit the 20k mark.

We hit the road just a little before 8AM and found a place open for breakfast in the main square! All this time it was so close! AHHHH how nice it was to have a real morning meal.

Plus, it was cat friendly…

Today we went to Delft and it was just fantastic! We both agree it was the best day-trip of the vacation EASILY. Our minds were blown right from the start by the amazing town hall, it was so beautiful we decided to sit on a terrace and just gaze at it for a while.

  

Once we were all fuelled-up, we climbed the tower to the viewing gallery 85 meters up (376 stairs) to gawk at it some more from another angle.

The rest of Delft looked pretty good from up there too…

I found this half-house interesting.

But the stairs were pretty scary, some looked like fan blades.

After, we visited the Churches. The New Church:

… and the Old Church is where Vermeer is buried.

Really interesting grave stones on the floor!

The Old Church is also famous for it’s leaning tower which leans by 2 meters! Sadly, this was my view instead.

The weather today was a lot cooler than the last few days; in fact this morning when we got out of the train we needed our gloves and hoods! What a change from the past few days. When the wind died down and the sky cleared up, it was nice enough to eat outside so we had lunch on a terrace barge moored on the canal.

We walked off lunch with a wander around town and then went to the Vermeercentrum for a very interesting and informative hour or so.

The rest of the day was just spent wandering.

Look how close the waterline is to the bottom of the doors!

This is supposed to be the site from where Vermeer’s “View from Delft” was painted, I was hoping for some similar outlines, the Old Church is 800 years old after all, and the Town Hall was around his day… but it’s not even close.

We got back to the hotel around 6, and then went to the bar across the street for a drink and onwards to a restaurant in the main square for supper.

How cute is this?

Last day tomorrow….  Good night!