We had this morning loosely planned out, where we’d do some of the highlights of Amsterdam. Helen then said the next time we come, we should go further afield, so I suggested we go to Delft today. This is not something we Thompsons do. We aren’t really known for our spontaneity. Even so, less than an hour later, we were on a train to Delft.
Boats, Bikes, Blokes and Bahns
The Dutch foresight not to have low Victorian tunnels and bridges means that they get lovely double decker trains which are clean, quiet and have bags of room, particularly between the seats making for a very comfortable journey. It was even on time… on the way there anyway. They way back was a different matter as the train was delayed by 30 minutes and this is where not speaking the language was a disadvantage as they could have changed the platform and we’d have never known!
As we headed from Delft station towards the main square we crossed multiple parallel lanes for boats, bikes, blokes and clearly cheating here, bahns. There is a clear hierarchy in The Netherlands for transport priorities and pedestrians are very much at the bottom of the pile so you need to keep your wits about you.
If you are wondering where the “bhan” bit came from it was suggested by AI (Deepseek in this case) and shows that they still have some way to go before they are taking over the world!
Pull a Map
We’d thought that there was a tourist information office in the main square but couldn’t see one, so I went into the church shop to ask. I was told that while there wasn’t an office, you could get a map from a machine just round the corner— “just pull the handle”. Went to look and there was a blue tower with a large handle, which when pulled dispensed a large map— for free— perfect!
It’s a long time since I’ve been to Delft, and I’d forgotten how attractive it is with its little streets and canals around the large market square. At both ends of the square are grand buildings; one of which, the church, had a tower, so we had to climb that. As ever, you get a great view over the city from up high, and we spied a windmill in the distance and decided to make our way towards that.
The walk took us along some attractive canals and lovely side streets. It was impossible not to look through the windows of some of the houses and see inside and beyond to the small gardens at the rear. I’ve decided that I could definitely live in the Netherlands, and Delft might be a good choice as it is (probably) cheaper than Amsterdam, just 60 minutes away by train, and has a very relaxed feel to it. Bit far from the grandchildren though but maybe that’s a good thing!
The rest of the day was spent wandering the streets, sitting at canal side cafés and browsing the wares of the many tourist shops before we went back to the station for our delayed train.
