Our
cab arrived bright and early, and we were whisked off to our hotel near Schipol
Airport in well under 2 hours. The
cab was more than quoted (supposedly because he took us to the hotel and not
the airport), but it was well worth it- it saved us a lot of schlepping. Our rooms were not ready, so we left
our luggage with the concierge, and took a shuttle to the airport to get a
train to Delft. Our timing could
not have been more perfect. We got
to Schipol and knew just where to go to get train tickets. We had to take a train to the Hague and
transfer to Delft. The Hague train
left two minutes after we got our tickets, and the Delft train left from the
track adjacent to us on arrival in the Hague about 1 minute after we arrived. We couldn't believe our luck!
Delft
is like a quaint Amsterdam with several canals and beautiful squares. Delft's major claims to fame are its 2
Protestant churches, Oudekerke and Nieuwkerke, the burial site of
William of Orange who led a rebellion against the Spanish that established self
rule in Holland, and Delft pottery.We walked into the town center passing a Hillel Huis (House) we assume as part of the university of Delft, and an old synagogue that has been restored and preserved, though no services were being held even though it was Saturday morning. The entire town was out along the canal in this area for a giant flea market that was going on. We perused the assorted kitsch and nearly purchased an antique Delft plate, but decided to keep our options open. They were not cheap, and since we knew very little about authentication, feared we might be getting ripped off. Marty did buy a broken old tile that was purportedly from the 18th century. The two churches were very impressive and upon leaving the Oudekerke, we came upon a pair of newlyweds having wedding photos taken. They left in a beautiful white Rolls Royce (which we later found at city hall in the town square).
The Delft factory is about a mile from the city center an easy walk for us seasoned trampers. The weather was spectacular and the walk took us through a residential area of Delft. The homes here were small but beautifully maintained and the gardens in the front of the houses were quite something. The Delft factory was very Disneyesque with an audio tour that combined movies with moving 3-D figures. The story of Delft porcelain was very interesting with its beginnings in China. Blue Chinese porcelain was brought back to the Netherlands by early traders as well as privateers and rapidly became a big hit in Europe. The art of producing this porcelain was soon adopted by artists in Delft and this became the center for production with over 30 factories throughout the city. In the 1700's the British modified the production techniques for porcelain (Wedgewood China) making it faster and cheaper than that of the Delft artisans. This all but destroyed the market for Delft Blue and all but one of the factories went out of business. The only remaining factory was the Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles (the Porcelain Jar).
In 1876 Joost
Thooft, a delft engineer, bought the factory with the intention of restoring
the old tradition of producing hand painted Delft Blue. Joost Thooft added to
the trademark his monogram JT and the word "Delft‟. As a token
of appreciation for the attempts the company had been making since 1876 to
restore the fame of Delft and the ceramics industry in general, the term "Royal‟ was granted
to the Porceleyne Fles in 1919 and it is now known as Royal Delft. The tour was an excellent marketing
ploy because we now own a beautiful Royal Delft plate as a memento of our
Netherlands trip. Toby and Marty
started out buying a mass produced tile as a trivet, but then added to their
order the same tile with the official trademark on the back for display. After our purchases, we sat and had
coffee, basking in the afternoon
sun in their garden until they through us out at closing time.
We
strolled back toward the city center and found a courtyard surrounded by
outdoor cafes (Beestem Markt) and picked a small Italian restaurant for our last dinner in the
Netherlands. It stays light until
10ish so dining outside was very pleasant. There was an enormous amount of activity in the market
square with young children playing, boys playing soccer, and even a fraternity
hazing (the fun kind). The Dutch
make excellent Italian food.
Our return trip was as easy as the trip out, hitting trains and shuttle perfectly with almost no wait time. We really have to learn how to do mass transit better here. The day was about as perfect as one might ever hope for, only wish Molly and Dave had been able to enjoy it with us. A perfect end to a great vacation.
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