Cruising The Baltics (2019): Day 13

A friend had mentioned you have not visited The Netherlands until you've spent time outside of Amsterdam. I'm taking my friend up on that premise and headed to a town that rarely sees tourists.

Leaving the hotel, back to the train station

Nice and quiet this early, no Chinese tourists yet

I mean, how can you get much fresher of a roll for breakfast

1 of the 3 covers, each cover protects 4 train lines

Waffles in the vending machine?

And we head an hour southwest to the town of Delft. Apparently it's all the history of Amsterdam without any tourists nor unspoiled beauty.

Tulip growing grounds as we head to Delft

It's no joke, people here love their bikes. This is the 'bike garage' as you enter/exit the Delft train station. Pay a guy for a stall, drive your bike to it, load it, lock it, leave it.

Welcome to the main street of Delft. The city got its name from the old word 'delf' meaning literally 'canal'. I guess folks back then didn't have much creativity in naming things.

1 windmill to keep that Dutch history

The first thing we're going to checkout before it gets too warm is the Old Church. It was built in 1246. No you're eyes aren't tricking you, the bell tower is leaning. The soil around the canals is unstable and the weight of the tower was too much thus it began to lean. You can't hike it because they've added weight over the decades to the opposite side of the lean to prevent it from falling over.

It's quite the lean

The white plaster was added.. We'll come back to this topic in a bit

Perhaps someone died while making a stew for themselves?

The walls and glass of the church are semi new. In 1654 a nearby powerder keg storage facility caught fire and BOOM! 30 tons of power exploded, killing hundreds, injuring thousands, blowing out all the glass and some walls in this church. The white plaster was added after the building was put back together because the stone walls looked 'old'. What did survive were the tombs.

The tomb of Jakob Delft is stunning. One single piece of granite. No power tools. Just an artist, making some of the most detailed cuts imaginable. It looks like he's resting on an actual blanket.

Even he ruff is perfectly sculptured

The church has grown a bit over 600 years

The "new" organ from the 1800s

Also in this church is a tomb to Elizabeth Morgan, friend to William of Orange (the guy who destroyed / removed Christianity from much of Europe in the 1600s).

Onward. Much more to see in this quaint town.

Yeah I have questions too about this poor swan

Quick brunch anyone? Chocolate croissant for me please

I'm doing my normal wandering down random streets where I come upon this canal.

And we first see the New Church steeple.

The church began construction in 1396. It took 100 years to complete. Lots of different stone queries were used over the ages (as you can tell below the clock). The black is a result of acid rain of the sandstone used to built the top of the tower. The acid cannot be removed from the stone so they leave it black.

Random flowers just appear along side of the street

Welcome to the main town square.

The 360' tall New Church

Little did I know when I began the trip that this is the home of the famous blue porceline work.

While the church is "new" is it not original. Twice it has been rebuilt. Once during a fire and also as a result of that same power keg explosion.When it was last renovated they removed the white plaster that remains in the Old Church to make it more like it was when built.

New stain glass windows were only put in after a 1960s financial gift

This church is still used to bury the royal Dutch family. In the photo below, bottom center, is a large lid. When a family member dies they lift that lid and lower the person into the crypt.

This is also home to William of Orange. If you're wondering, Orange is an actual city, his birthplace. His crypt is the largest by far. William was so popular because he was able to oust King James II of England and his pro-Christianity rules. William restores a pro-Protestant belief onto the lands. He ultimately becomes king of England, Scotland and Ireland. The Dutch wanted to honor him and they sure did with his tomb.

Notice the adult woman on the left to get scale

An angel stands above William to announce his arrival into heaven

One very cool thing you can do is climb to the very top of the bell tower. Now, before beginning I didn't know about the hike. Hey, it's a bunch of stairs, no biggie. I had no idea it was 376 steps, climbing 360 feet with stairs that had to be used for going up and concurrently coming down. Steps were less than 3' wide and extremely steep. At many points I couldn't stand straight up.

The first landing, 1/3 the way up

You get to see the mechanism that keeps time

If you aren't sick yet from that first climb you now get to transfer to a smaller, tighter, steeper set of stairs.

It's the tightest, steepest staircase I've ever climbed

Escape doot, 2/3 the way up, chance to see the view

Just below the bells is the first lookout spot. You're probably 250' up. It is an incredible view.

What a view it is. The Old Church is in the distance

The north lookout spot. I'm standing on the west lookout

Proof I went up

Oh look, bride just arrived in her Mustang

After a quick look it was back to the stairs, learning how to allow people to come down while I need to go up, out this door to see the view.

Final door to pass through to get to the platform

Amazing views of the town

And done. I'm going to puke from that hike. Going down was much faster as no one was coming up. I made it though!
At that first lookout there was a small church on the next block. Let's check it out. It is very new (1970s) as a Catholic church would never have been built back in the day in this Protestant country.

Even new churches need maintenance

Wow. That was a full day. Initially I thought I could hit the town of Gouda but I ended up being here from 8am-4pm. Time to head back before the Friday afternoon crowds overwhelm the trains.