Two Beers and a Pretzel

Delft is the home of Vermeer (painter), the former house of the royal family, and the former home of the Dutch East India Company.  Trade with China brought Chinese pottery, which the Dutch adeptly learned to make for themselves in the mid 1600′s.

The old church has the same problem as Dordrecht – the clock tower is obviously leaning.

They must have figured out the foundation issues before starting the new church.  Trust me, it’s straight – even if the pic is slightly crooked.

Across the square is the town hall.

Then I made my way across town to the old factory (still in use) where Delftware is sill hand painted.

The paint is actually black when it is applied to the fired shapes, but turns blue when items are re-fired after painting and glazing.

They even do custom tile murals.  This one is a massive replica of Rembrandt’s ‘Night Watch’ utilizing 480 tiles, and took 2 master painters a solid year to complete

Then I made my way out to the gift shop and discovered how expensive this hand painted Delftware is.  That’s 86 Euros ($128) for a small house that you could fit twice in the palm of your hand.

Although I did manage to find something for mom under $50

Today was a cold day, but that didn’t prevent me from taking a walking tour of the capital of the Netherlands.  The trains were back in order, so it only took 40 minutes to get to The Hague.  The Tourist Information center had a booklet of a self guided walking tour that highlights the architecture of the city.  Since most of the museums are closed on Mondays, I opted for the walk – which was fine, there’s plenty to see…

The tour takes you by new and old government offices, churches, and shopping centers dating as far back as the 1300′s, and as recent as 1996 – with most of the interesting buildings in the 1700′s and 1800′s.

The skinniest house in the Netherlands.  Similar to CIncinnati in the 20′s, The Hague taxes property based on lenght of street frontage…  So owning a house on an inside corner (max frontage for minimal area) was a sign of extreme wealth.  In the meantime, people crammed small houses in wherever they could.

The Hague is 750 years old.  There has been a lot of growth since the 1800′s.  In 1850 the population was 75,000.  Today it’s almost 500,000… so there’s a constant mix of old and new…

Below, the gold fountain is from the late 1800′s, but the ‘Knight’s Hall’ in the background was started in the 1300′s and is the largest Gothic building in Europe that isn’t a church.

From the back side of the administrative complex (including the spire from the Knight’s Hall) – looking over the lake toward the Grote Kerk  - supposodly one of the prettiest city views in Holland.

The Grote (big) Market street.