DELFT
Day 3 – last day of tour – tomorrow we should board the bus for the journey home. However, we are on an extended tour of the Rhine which follows on from here. Today we have a tour round the canals of Delft a visit to Royal Delft. From the official site “Royal Delft, established in 1653, is the last remaining Delftware factory from the 17th century. The world famous Royal Delftware is still entirely hand-painted according to centuries-old tradition. A visit to Royal Delft will take you to our museum, factory and our beautiful garden, which is full of large pieces of building ceramics from the last century. Our museum has a huge collection of Delft Blue antiques, which gives you a glimpse of the history of Delft Blue ware. In the factory you will be able to see the production process. Our entire collection of traditional and modern earthenware is displayed in our showroom, as well a collection of attractive souvenirs. In our coffee corner you can enjoy a drink or a snack, with a beautiful view of the inner garden. Our coffee corner is open from the 26st of March onwards“.
We started off with a tour round the city by canal – however there was a problem – this was a national holiday in the Netherlands “Queens Day“. Imagine all of the UK shutting down on a bank holiday – this includes all transport, then large street parties – people drinking and having fun, wearing national colours – yes we can do that – but here in the Netherlands it is party time with no drunks or trouble (more of this later). The planned trip was in doubt – thankfully two students who act as boat drives / guide agreed to take us around as it was early and the fun would not start until later the afternoon.
