My Town Monday - Variation - Delft!!

Well this week I have decided to report back on the various places that we visited while on holiday, a surrogate My Town!

The first place that we visited was Delft, only 12 or so miles from where we were staying. We drove into Delft with no problems, but parking was another matter! The main square is pedestrianised and all on street parking was residents only. The town is surrounded by canals so we seemed to do a lot of driving around in circles. The satnav (Stella) got herself confused, she knew where the parking was but was incapable to actually getting us anywhere near to it, very frustrating. In the end Tom and Debbielou went to the tourist office for instructions. We felt quite out of our comfort zone as we just didn't understand the language, although almost everyone does speak some English.

Delft is a very pretty town, the home of the painter Jan Vermeer (1632-75) and the burial place for Dutch Royalty.Vermeer is buried in the 13th century Oude Kerk.(which is the first picture, the church with the wonky tower!!) The Royal house Oranje-Nassau is also associated with Delft and members of that family are interred in the 14th century Nieuwe Kerk, including Prince William of Orange (Last picture above) This church is quite spectacular from the outside having been built over a large number of years.

Delft is known world wide for the very pretty blue and white pottery that is produced in potteries both in the town and in the surrounding area. As a tourist it was my duty to bring some of that back with me, I have some new blue and white Christmas baubles for my tree!!