Delft, Netherlands
The Charming & Canal-Ringed Home Of The World-Famous Delftware Pottery“Charming doesn’t even begin to describe this place, a small, manageable city that almost doesn’t feel real. Indeed, at times Delft is so idyllic that you feel like you’re walking around a movie set, a mock-up of picture-perfect Netherlands.”
Image || Grote Markt (Market Square), Delft, Netherlands. January 18, 2016.
Delft, Netherlands
Renowned for its canals & world-famous for its Delftware, Delft is a relaxed & canal-ringed city in the western Netherlands. Charming doesn’t even begin to describe this place, a small, manageable city that almost doesn’t feel real. Indeed, at times Delft is so idyllic that you feel like you’re walking around a movie set, a mock-up of picture-perfect Netherlands. This is especially true at night when the canals, most of which are too small to be navigable by anything other than Delft’s resident ducks, are nicely illuminated with twinkling fairy lights. People zip around on bikes with a smile on their faces, no one seems to be in a hurry, the streets are quiet (even though there’s seemingly a university around here somewhere), and places open late, if at all. It’s all a bit too relaxed.
Grote Markt (Market Square), Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) & City Hall
I was in a rush once I disembarked the train in Delft from Antwerp, Belgium, to get to the city’s gorgeous Grote Markt (Market Square) in a bid to catch the last light of the day.
Dusk in Grote Markt, Delft, Netherlands. January 17, 2016 || The most striking landmark of central Delft’s main square is the piercing, slender 109 metre-high tower of the 15th-century Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), the second tallest structure in Netherlands. Delft was once the seat of the royal House of Orange & the church crypt houses family’s tombs.
Old Town Hall on Grote Markt, Delft, Netherlands. January 18, 2016 || The Market Square’s other striking edifice is City Hall, a Renaissance style building that was the former seat of the city’s government and is still in use today for civic events.
A bicycle by the canal in Delft, Netherlands. January 18, 2016.
– The Rough Guide to Netherlands
Early morning by the canals in Delft, Netherlands. January 18, 2016.
Delftware
As expected, given that it is the manufacturing base for Delftware, the world-famous hand-painted blue-and-white pottery, options abound in Delft itself to stock up on all things blue-and-white.
A shop display on Grote Markt (Market Square) in Delft, Netherlands. January 18, 2016.
A wall mural off Grote Markt in Delft, Netherlands. January 18, 2016.
Right on time. Amsterdam bound. On the platform of the train station in Delft, Netherlands. January 18, 2016.