Old Town Delft and Kinderdijk Windmills

 After our tour through the Royal Delft Museum and workshop our bus took us into the historic area of Delft and our tour guide led  us into the old town. Like most towns in the Netherlands, Delft also had canals and lots of bicycles. We passed a church where the "parking lot" was full of bikes from those attending service.

Delft was once the seat of the royal house of Orange and the "new church" from the 15th century houses the tombs of past royal family. The "old church" is the burial place of the Dutch Master painter, Johannes Vermeer. You would recognize his most famous painting, the girl with the pearl earring. Our guide pointed out that some are not convinced it's a pearl. Upon closer examination it appears too large and shines a bit like metal. I say it's an artist's interpretation of a pearl. Argument settled? Interesting to note, none of Vermeer's paintings are in the town, only reproductions.

Old church spire

Across the square from the new church is the ornate town hall, beautiful architectural building. The town square was filled with market stalls mostly like a craft market would be back home and included some interesting food stalls as well. One which was making poffertjes, the little pancakes we'd had the day before in Veere. It was fascinating watching him make them, turning them quickly and then dishing them out. The grill must have been really hot. 

It was then free time, time for us to find a place to eat lunch on our own. We found a restaurant right on the square that had a sheltered outdoor space and ducked in there. Our waitress came to the table and rattled off something in her language and I responded with "please?" 

New church

"Oh," she said, "you guys speak English." It was perfectly spoken and I thought she was American living in Delft and going to school there. Nope. Turned out she learned all her English/American phrases from the students she hung out with including exclamations like, "Oh my god! It's so good!" I told her she would do quite well should she visit the States.

We both ordered tuna sandwiches and an an order of fries to split between us (their orders are fairly large). Our sandwiches came with some assembly necessary. They were open faced with small pieces of romaine lettuce cradling three scoops of tuna salad and dotted with cherry tomato halves. It was all very pretty but there was no way to put it together to make a sandwich and get it into our mouths to bite. The bread was tasty but quite thick. We knife and forked it and surprisingly managed to eat it all. 

When in Belgium or the Netherlands, there is more than likely a charge for the restroom facility or WC. It's usually a Euro or fifty cents unless you've eaten in the restaurant or cafe. We used the facility knowing there might not be another for a while.

Town hall

After a little walk around the craft markets we met our guide for the walk back to our bus and our trip to the Kinderdijk windmills. The weather was turning on us. It did not look promising. Were we going to have to use those umbrellas in Bob's backpack?

Our bus ride to the Kinderdijk was about 45 minutes. The skies grew grayer and putting those umbrellas in Bob's backpack were looking like a smart move.

Sure enough as we arrived and entered to see the windmills, a light rain began to fall. It was okay, said our guide as he checked his phone, it would pass while we were in the movie. A hearty Dutchman and an optimist or else he was checking the wrong city.

After a short video that was well done but probably easier to follow if you were a local, we came outside to the same rain. Our guide led us to the boat we were to ride for a boat tour. To our relief it was covered but with the rain falling, it made it difficult to see let alone take any pictures. The boat tour ended up being nothing more than a quick shuttle to the other side of the canal. 

We were given the choice to stay on the boat that would return to the starting point or get off to see the inside of the windmill nearby. We chose the windmill. There were more than a dozen windmills lining the canal and several were working. It seems you could only go into two of them to see the inner workings.

All of us quickly scurried into the windmill and found that the actual working parts of the windmill were up a steep flight of steps. I opted to stay below and have a look at the living quarters where the family who operated the windmill would live. Bob braved the climb up and down.

These windmills we discovered were much different than the others we had visited on our last trip to the Netherlands. Those were industrial, meaning they were used to grind grains. These were the kind of windmills used to pump water to keep it in the canals at a level that would not flood the land. They are still in working condition should the more modern electric run pumps fail. 

I waited anxiously as I watched Bob descend what was more like a ladder than actual steps. Everyone coming down came down backwards. We stood for a few minutes at the door and decided that the best course of action was to raise the umbrella and walk back to the entrance rather than wait on the shuttle. It was coming down a little harder now and the skies were even darker.

We hustled along the walkway and as we neared the entrance, we turned off to go inside a brick building that housed steam pumps or electric. I'm not sure I understood which. They were being renovated. At least it was dry inside and out of the breeze. 

Everyone met at the entrance area that had an overhang to keep us dry as we waited on the bus to return. Most places don't have parking for buses and they are only allowed to stop to load and unload. Sadly we didn't get to walk and see the other windmills and enjoy the landscape but when you travel you cannot always count on perfect weather and we were discovering that the weather in Belgium and the Netherlands could be just like home, unpredictable and changing all the time.

We were pretty wet and cold by the time we arrived at the boat since the bus could not park in front of it and it was raining pretty hard by then. Bless his heart, our cruise manager came out with umbrellas for those who needed them and met us as we got off the bus.

A warm shower, a little rest and we were ready to enjoy dinner and the evening's entertainment. Dinner was wonderful carrot/ginger soup followed by delicious tender rib eye that was cut thin and curled over the top of potatoes and other veggies. The entertainment was a trio, piano, guitar and percussion that performed songs that were very familiar from the 60s and 70s. We managed to stay for most of it but the thought of rest and sleep was too tempting. We retired.

Blue Delft

 

The weather looked promising upon waking to a morning in Rotterdam. Rotterdam is a large city and mostly modern. It suffered the greatest blow during the war when the German Nazis bombed it mercilessly and destroyed most of the city. They have been in the process of rebuilding and building anew. Some of it is good, some perhaps not so much unless you enjoy the unusual vision of the cube houses. They are a big box turned so that a corner of the box fits onto a base. They look precarious. If you google Rotterdam's cube houses you can see what I mean. I didn't get the phone ready in time to snap a shot as we went by. 

We had signed up for a full day tour to see the Delft factory and the Kinderdijk windmills. By nine o'clock we were on the road to Delft. As we passed through Rotterdam, I was glad we had signed for the Delft tour. I'm not fond of touring big cities and aside from shopping and restaurants, I didn't see much that would appeal to me. 

Royal dinnerware

Delft is a smaller town and looked to be a lot more interesting to explore after our factory tour. The tour of the Royal Delft Museum began with a lot of history that was too much too absorb all at once but Delft has been in the process of making pottery since 1653. At one time they even made fire proof bricks which helped to save them from financial disaster at that point in time. There was also a time when they made building ceramics, moldings and archways and decorative stairways. But their bread and butter now is the famous blue Delft pottery. 

Plaster molds

The pottery is made from a white clay that is poured into a plaster mold which extracts the moisture from the clay. If it is a vase, they let it set for about a half hour and then pour out the liquid clay that is still in the middle thus creating the inside space of the vase. The piece is then fired in the kiln, left to cool and passed on to the painters or those who do the transfer patterns.

Delft pieces are either decorated with transfers or painted by hand. The reason they do transfers is that it is much easier to create quantity and precision. For example the royal place settings for the palace need to be perfect so the transfer design is best. Then in one little spot on the plate and charger, almost imperceptible, is a tiny gold dot that is used to line up the plate with the charger so that each place setting at the table is exactly the same. 

We were led to the workshop area where one lady was painting a figurine. (It was Sunday and there was a skeleton crew probably just for the sake of the tour groups.) A piece of white fired pottery is wrapped in a stencil and black cobalt is used to lightly stencil the design onto the pottery piece. The tiny dotted design is then drawn, connecting the dots, so that there is a design to paint. 

After that the painter fills in the design and does the shading according to the sample before her. Each hand painted item still needs to be exactly the same for each item. Sometimes a small mistake can be covered over but if not, the piece is scrapped. Small mistakes often end up in the seconds room of the gift shop.

Stenciled lines

The woman painting before us said she had been there for many years. It would take her about two hours to complete the painting of the figurine she was working on. It amazed me that the black cobalt could be thinned with water to create the lighter shading and all of it, after being sprayed with a clear glaze coating, would turn blue upon firing in the kiln.

Our stroll through the gift shop made it very clear that we would not be taking much home with us. The hand painted pieces, even the smallest, were at least 100 Euros. We found a small bell that was not hand painted that we could use as a Christmas ornament on our tree and purchased that. 

Stenciled, painted, glazed and fired.

One other thing to mention--the hand painted items are signed on the back with a special notation to differentiate from the transfer designs. A word of warning though. I imagine that the signature could still be copied by counterfeiters. 

We enjoyed waiting in the sunshine for our bus to return as the others finished shopping. I'm glad we got a little vitamin D. It was not to last.