On Saturday morning the 4 of us went to a town called Delft. It it about a 45 minute train ride from Amsterdam. One of the the people that Dad works with lives here, his name is Bart. In Delft we first went to a place where they make the famous blue pottery. We got to see some people painting the pottery. We also got to see the factory room where they assemble and fire everything. It was really cool. Also in the building they had a large collection of old pottery. At the end of the tour there was a shop where you could buy some of the pottery. We decided not to purchase anything because it was super duper expensive. Some of the things in there were 30,000 euros.
After going to the pottery place we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch. Bart's wife met us there and ate with us. The food was really good. Some of the stuff I had never had before. I also got to have some tiramisu for dessert and a latte. It was so delicious!
After lunch we walked over to the new church. The new church in Delft is the most famous church in the entire country. We got to climb to the top of the tower which was really crazy. We had to walk up a winding stair case. The steps were about 1.5 feet wide which made it really difficult when you met someone coming the other direction. After hiking about 400 steps we made it to the top. The view from the top was amazing! We could see all of Delft and we could even see the buildings in Rotterdam and The Hague. However I was a little freaked out at the top because we were so high up and the railing was not even up to our waist. The balcony we were standing on was only about 2 feet deep and there were people trying to get past each other. I was happy once we got back down to the main floor.
The inside of the church was also amazing. It had a really cool pipe organ that someone was playing while we were there. Also below the floors in a crypt all the Kings and Queens of The Netherlands are buried. All of the future Kings and Queens will be buried there as well.
After going to the New Church we went to the Old Church in Delft. It is a really beautiful building as well. The tower of the church is leaning because it is so old. They don't ring the big bell because they are afraid that the vibrations might cause the tower to collapse. After we finished looking at the church we went back to Bart's house. His wife made us a supper yummy dinner. And then we came back to Amsterdam on the train. The train ride home was very fun because we got to ride past all of the tulip fields. I didn't get any pictures of them tho because the train was going too fast and it made the pictures blurry.
 |
| This is a master painter at the Delft pottery place. |
 |
This is a copy of Rembrandt's Night Watch painted with the
blue paint. |
 |
This is a picture of the different stages of making Delft pottery
The first is the clay directly out of the mold. The second
is the clay the first time it is fired. The third is the paint
before it is fired the last time. And the las is the finished
clay vase. |
 |
| This is one of the old gateways into the city of Delft. |
 |
This is the New Church. We climbed all the
way to the top of the tower. |
 |
This is the view of the Old Church from the top of the
New Church's tower. |
 |
| This is Bart and I at the top of the tower. |
 |
This is a picture of the town hall from
the top of the tower. |
 |
| This is a look directly down the tower. |
 |
This is Dad, Bart and I on the balcony about half way up the
tower. |
 |
This is Mom in front of the opening of the Crypt in the New
Church. |
 |
This is a monument statue of William of
Orange who is buried below the monument. |
 |
| Opening of the crypt. |
 |
This is the Old Church. See how the
tower is leaning. |
 |
This is the inside of the Old Church. The
stained glass windows were really beautiful. |
