Charming Delft

Community Highlights Europe Charming Delft

Well, it’s time to pack up and leave our pad in Amsterdam. We’ve had a lot of fun exploring and discovering this city. Or course one can’t see everything in 4 days. Our experience is to hit some highlights on a first visit, don’t get too crazy trying to fit everything in, and leave other attractions and sites for a future visit. We had a relaxing morning packing up, Katrien said no rush to leave - just pop the keys in the mailbox. Delft is only about an hour away by train and with a check-in time for 3:00 pm we didn’t want to head out too early.

Around 11’ish we left to walk to the Centraal Station, which is only about 10 minutes away. It took us 20 minutes - Beth stopped for some last minute souvenirs. Then, time to get on the train. We booked the tickets through the NS app (the main rail network). Super easy to buy tix and look at schedules. Everything here is done on an app, where you download the tickets. You tap to get on trains/trams etc, and then tap to get off.

We road the InterCity train, which makes stops at various towns along the way. I think we stopped at 5 or 6, but only for very short periods. Ride was smooth and relaxing and soon we were in Delft.

I plugged in the address of our small hotel on maps app and it said it was a 5 minute walk. Not too far to lug our stuff (by the way which consists of one carry-on sized luggage and backpack each).
First impression was a wow - just a beautiful charming little town. Absolutely picture perfect. Compared to the tourist area we were in in Amsterdam, this is an area where people live too. Nice little shops and many restaurants and patios. There are definitely tourists here like us, but it does not appear to overwhelm the town.
Here are some initial photos:

We arrived earlier than our check-in time, but we able to store our luggage at the small hotel we are staying at (more about that later).
It was quite a warm pleasant day, around 28 degrees C. Feeling parched and needing some sustenance, we found a nice tree-shaded patio and had avocado toast with smoked salmon, along with a glass of Heineken of course!

We headed back to check-in to our small hotel. It is a pretty place right on the canal, and so one would assume naturally that our room might be above the main entrance facing the canal, kind of like our place in Amsterdam. Wrong! The friendly clerk cheerfully said follow me, and we headed out the front door and walked down to an adjacent building. He used our key card to scan the entrance door, we then proceeded to go through 3 more doors (scanning each time). Eventually we came out to small courtyard and there, straight ahead, was our room. We call it the Delft garden shed. I asked, do you have any rooms overlooking the canal? Sorry, no. Obviously we were disappointed, but the room is very modern and upgraded, and the courtyard is just for our use.
Here it is:

We relaxed for an hour or so. I had made reservations for a nicer upscale restaurant that was recommended in our guide book (but then also so was the hotel!). Killing a few hours we continued our stroll around the old town.

It was a beautiful warm evening when we came to our restaurant. Situated on a beautiful square that apparently was once the cow market, it was a shaded tree-lined little piece of paradise. This is what we ordered (warning to any vegetarians - you may want to skip this part!) Beth had the rabbit and I had the lamb shank. Served with a separate plate of mashed potatoes and other veggies. Each for around 22 Euro, which I thought was not bad for this fine dining.

Wow, what a great introduction to Delft. We have one full day here tomorrow and then hit the rails the day after that.
Thanks for following along!

This featured blog entry was written by Ross Walker from the blog From Canals to Croissants.
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