Mom & Dad visit: Delft

After Noah's Ark we head about 30 minutes Northwest to Delft. This is where the blue delftware originated. We stayed a really nice hotel, Hotel Juliana. It was in a more residential area and within walking distance of the downtown area. The hotel was smaller and not a big chain hotel, which I enjoyed.

After checking into the hotel and dropping our stuff we headed out to find somewhere to eat and do a little shopping. The walk really wasn't bad once we kind of figured out the right direction. Delft, like the majority of the Netherlands, have several canals. The downtown area has several places to eat, shops and beautiful building and churches to look at.

 The main canal that goes around downtown

Most of the stores in the square where we ate had touristy stuff. There were also some delftware stores. My mom and I each got some nice stuff there including a plate clock and gifts for my mom and I got a pair of kissing dutch kids. The kissing couple is a very popular design and traditional dutch. The Netherlands is also a very large dairy producing country. Colby loves cheese. They had a cheese store with several different kinds of cheese. You could sample several different kinds and then he bought some cheese to bring home. They also had prefect picture opportunities in front of the store.

The next morning was Easter. So my mom had hid eggs in there room for the kids and had Easter stuff for them. After breakfast at the hotel we headed to where the car was parked and discovered it was right by the delftware factory we were going to next. The factory is an original factory from the 1600's.

We were able to see the process of how delftware is made including a master painter at work. They also have on display several pieces from different collections and limited editions piece they did for the Dutch royal family. 

This is the process of making delftware. They paint it in shades of black and then it turns blue when the piece is "cooked" in the kiln 

We found this to be the most interesting thing at the factory. A model actually wore this outfit made completely from delftware pieces. I can only imagine how heavy it must be!

After the self guided tour of the factory, you get headphones and push a number on the remote based on what you are looking at, they have a fairly large gift shop. The pieces there are quite expensive. The large pieces that are hand painted can be upwards of 400-500 euro. They also do stamping now with some designs and those pieces are much cheaper. For example we purchased tiles and a frame for the wall. We got 2 stamped tiles for 12 euro each. The hand painted ones were a little better quality of course but were 50 euro each I believe. The difference in quality was not worth it to me. We also didn't want to spend that much on something that could potential break in our many future moves as an Army family. 

Delft is a very cool town and much bigger then I expected. I wish we could of spent more time there. Although, if you want delftware its better to purchase it from stores downtown or around town instead of at the factory, or at least the factory we went to.