Delft was such a great day! We left Amsterdam early Friday morning and everyone napped on the train to Delft. We got off the train and went straight to the UNESCO campus in Delft to have a lecture on Water issues in the Netherlands. And let me tell you, they have a lot of water issues. It was such an interesting lecture. I loved it. But I'm pretty sure I was the only one, haha. Everyone else was exhausted and not super interested in the sciencey good stuff. But environmental issues are right up my interested alley. Most of the Netherlands is below sea level and they use lots of complex systems, like windmills, canals, and dams, to make sure their cities don't drown. UNESCO was so cool too. A campus full of people obsessed with water from all over the world. I loved it so much.
After the lecture we went to the city centre. So cute. I also had 3 cups of coffee, so I was ready to go. I had so much energy, oh man. But it made for a great day.
Delft City Center
Cute canals and Delfts own leaning tower
We then split up and went to get some lunch. Khang (fellow traveler) had researched Delft before and looked for a place to get lunch. He found one with amazing reviews so some of us followed him and we went off to find it. Best idea ever to follow Khang because he took me to a place where I had the best sandwich of my entire life. I was literally obsessed with it. The three guys I was eating with were making fun of me for being so into it. Let me try to explain the amazing-ness. It had so so so many different flavors, yet somehow they all worked together. The bread, for starters, was amazing. So rich and toasty, yet soft and flavorful. There was a bed of arugula (my favorite lettuce type thing), and then this super good veggie lentil patty, sweet and sour sauce as a spread, dates, figs, red currants and pine nuts. Every bite was new and different and exciting and I never wanted the sandwich to end.
Obsessed.
After we parted ways with my favorite restaurant in the world, we headed to the Delft Blue Tile Museum. On our way there I really wanted chocolate and by some stroke of luck I was searching in my bag and found leftover chocolate from the night before that I thought I had already eaten. Just another reason why it was the best day ever.
The Delft Tile Museum was really interesting. I had no idea how they were made, just thought they were beautiful. Heres the process: 1. make the shape (vase, plate, tile, etc) out of this cool plaster ceramic stuff. 2. Paint it with black paint. 3. Put it in the oven, which turns the black paint blue because theres some sort of cobalt something in the paint. 4. Glaze.
The process in a nutshell
The official Trademark (theres about a bazillion knock offs)
After we learned all about the tiles, we got to paint our own! It was so much fun. Hard work to stay focused and not mess up, but super cool.
The group
It was really fun to experiment with different brush angles and depths of color, even though it was all black.
My tile before the fire
And the finished product!
I'm really happy with how it turned out. Great keepsake from the best day ever. I loved Delft and everything we did there so much. Great way to end our first full week :]
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