Today we picked up a rental car and set off to get out of Amsterdam and head south to Delft. Driving on the wrong side of the road is always a strain on the brain, especially after not doing it for a while. But these days we are blessed with Google navigation to help up get to where we want to go - although it is often unaware of roads closed for roadworks, as we encountered a number of times.
We decided to take the long road rather than just zipping down the A4, taking two or three hours instead of 40 minutes by the fastest route. We turned off and drove out the North Sea coast. Today was grey and there was a strong and quite cold wind blowing, so the Noordwijk Beach we stopped at was windswept and desolate looking.
Delft
I'm having trouble finding the time to write the blog, so I will concentrate instead on getting some photos up, at least!
We really liked Delft, which after Amsterdam seemed much more relaxing and felt more like living in a normal town. There are still tourists of course, but nothing like the huge crowds which filled the centre of Amsterdam every day. Delft's canals and streets are on a much smaller scale, and many of them have no boat traffic at all. Our street/canal is choked with lily plants, so it would be hard work to row a boat along it at all. Our B&B is a quirky avant-garde studio in the back garden of the the owner, who was also the architect and has a similar unusual house.
The big church in the town square is called the Nieuwe Kerk ("New Church") because when it was built starting 1381 there was already an older church nearby. The Nieuwe Kerk in Delft is actually of great significance to the Netherlands because William of Orange, founder of the nation, was buried here in 1584, as were almost all later members of the royal family. It has suffered the usual disastrous fires over the centuries but has been rebuilt.
This B&B was a lean minimilistic design, but was also rather minimally equipped! We managed to make some toast in the microwave, and it did have a proper coffee machine which was a big redeeming feature.
Delft is a smaller, prettier and less spoiled version of Amsterdam. Very nice, we thought. There are almost no canal boats at all, and it was a short walk from our accommodation to the centre.
On our last evening we discovered the popular "Beestenmarkt" square nearby where the locals congregate to eat and drink on summer evenings. Hundreds of people there created quite a buzz, so it is a great place to relax and watch the locals go by.
We decided to take the long road rather than just zipping down the A4, taking two or three hours instead of 40 minutes by the fastest route. We turned off and drove out the North Sea coast. Today was grey and there was a strong and quite cold wind blowing, so the Noordwijk Beach we stopped at was windswept and desolate looking.
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| Down to the beach at Noordwijk on a grey windswept day |
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| It was cosy inside this "beach club". There are many of these on the sand along the beach. |
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| Sue contemplating the North Sea. |
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| Apple pie! |
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| Locals enjoying a day at the beach, huddled in their wind shelters. |
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| The Noordwijk weather rock (the rock is missing) |
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| Our hybrid electric rental Toyota C-HR. |
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| The sun started to break through as we walked along the beach. |
I'm having trouble finding the time to write the blog, so I will concentrate instead on getting some photos up, at least!
We really liked Delft, which after Amsterdam seemed much more relaxing and felt more like living in a normal town. There are still tourists of course, but nothing like the huge crowds which filled the centre of Amsterdam every day. Delft's canals and streets are on a much smaller scale, and many of them have no boat traffic at all. Our street/canal is choked with lily plants, so it would be hard work to row a boat along it at all. Our B&B is a quirky avant-garde studio in the back garden of the the owner, who was also the architect and has a similar unusual house.
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| Beautiful cart horses towing tourists beside the canal. |
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| The canal at the corner of our street. The Neuwe Kerk (New Church) tower. |
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| Next day we climbed this tower (the Neuwe Kerk). |
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| Our street (and canal). It is choked with lilies! |
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| Looking down on Delft from the church tower. Our B&B is just down there... |
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| Looking up at the timber ceiling of the church. |
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| The corner of the street next to ours, with lily-choked canal. |
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| In the weekly market. |
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| Our host's house on the left; our B&B studio on the right. All to an avante-garde architectural style! |
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| Our B&B, and the church tower near by. |
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| A family of swans on our canal. They will never be short of duckweed to eat. |
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| Sue on the corner of our street (canal). |
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| Relaxing at the "Beestenmarkt" (Animal Market) in Delft. |
