Walking in Delft

There are so many things to see during this time of the year. There are all sort of festivals or shows going on. One of the thing that we inadvertently missed was the Dutch flower festival which is like the Pasadena flower parade in the States. With the sunny weather today we decided to go to the town of Delft to experience its lively Saturday atmosphere. We have been to this place before but mainly to buy the Delft ceramics but had never been to the centre of the town on Saturday.

The town itself is just a 20 minutes drive from home. The town could be described as a very typical old Dutch town with lots of canals, narrow alleys and traditional houses. But Delft is more than that.

The town of Delft is more associated with the Royal family and its blue 'Delft' ceramics is famous all over the world. The ceramics are of various designs of which two brands are known to still retain the true original authentic design and are allowed to use the royal seal on the ceramics. One of them has a factory attached to its shop and one could follow a free guided tour to how the ceramics are made. Typically these authentic ones are quite expensive, costing hundred or even thousand of euros each. Of course one could buy the cheaper ones which are sold in most souvenir shops. Most overseas tourists would drop by to the town of Delft apart from the more popular tourist's trapping of Amsterdam.

The town of Delft itself is quite lovely and full of culture and history. The main landmark is the main market place and the tall old Gothic church tower which dominates the skyline. One could climb the tower to the top to see the nice view of the town, but we didn't have the energy and time to climb up! On the West side of the market place stands the Stadhuis which is now already nearly 400 years old. This is also quite a majestic building, bearing in mind how amazing it must have been back then when it was completed during the early 17th century.