Met up with the partner again in Delft, the town of the famous blue and white pottery, also the birthplace of Vermeer. Full of canals and extraordinary architecture. We arrive at our hotel only to find we're located up three narrow flights of stairs and through a maze of corridors. The partner goes down to have a word and we're shown to a ground floor room that has been left in all it's original glory. I'm in love with it - old stove, tiles, leadlight. It's huge. The partner, who likes to wash a few clothes in situ, is delighted to have space to hang them to dry. That sorted, we head out to explore.
The main square is beautiful, the town hall like a gingerbread house with red shutters framing lead light windows. We dine on beer and roast chicken with various sauces (a traditional dish around here), whilst listening to Brazilian singers in the square. The night is balmy as we wander the streets noticing that the majority of shops are either cheese shops or Delftware shops.
Underfoot , throughout the town, are white and blue pottery tiles with writing that spell out earth in different languages; even the lamp posts here are made of blue and white Delftware.
Outside our hotel is a barge on one of the canals where you can have drinks and watch the ducks float by. The canals are so slow moving that lilies are blooming along the edges. We have a nightcap on the barge and the next morning, we breakfast in a room decorated with Delftware plates and a mosaic of the famous Vermeer painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring.
The Saturday markets are on, spread along the canals, full of wondrous antiques and old Dutch tiles commemorating the war, the depression etc. that I long to take back to Auronzo but everything is too heavy and I'll be travelling for too long. People are so friendly here and everyone speaks perfect English.
We end up at the old Post Office that has been converted into a restaurant with an Indonesian theme. You forget that the Dutch had the South East Asia connection with the famous Dutch East India Company that ruled the waves and the spice trade in the 1600's. We have spring rolls and more artisan beer and people watch. That night we find the Inn that Vermeer's parents owned and dine on fish in butter with samphire greens.
The next day we set out to see the Hague, seat of the Dutch parliament and home to the U.N.'s International Court of Justice. I don't particularly want to go but the partner is keen and I have 'fomo' so off we go. The transport system here is amazing, efficient and on strictly on time.
We are on a herring hunt (which isn't really a hunt as such, as there are stalls of them everywhere) and they're served with gherkins. The partner loves them, I go for the battered cod. We come across a park with antique stalls set amongst the beautiful trees. The antiques in Europe are incredible, I buy old liquor labels, the partner buys a Delftware lighter.
We make our way through delicate summer rain to the Museum of Modern Art. It's set in an amazing Art Deco building and is full of de Stijl art, Kandinsky, Schiele (an artist from the thirties that I've just read a book about). There are rooms from The Dutch East Indies' heydays of extraordinary wealth, removed from houses that were being pulled down and recreated here. I was so glad I was talked into it. The colours of the tiles in this building are glorious, I take more photos of the building itself than the artists works. Fomo paid off.
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