Day Trip : Delft
We took a day trip to Delft last week. Coming from the U.S., it amazes me how close everything is and how easy it is to get around without a car. One of the things we noticed right away upon walking into historic Delft is the electric green canals everywhere.
The green plants covering all of the canals in Delft are called kroos in Dutch or duckweed in English. It happens when there is too much nitrogen in the water and the weather has been hot with little rain. We’ve seen some of it in Haarlem but not to this degree. It’s strangely pretty but I know it’s the sign of an unhealthy canal.
You can see above that the leaves are starting to fall! The high the past few days here has been 56 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t ask me what that is in Celsius, I’m still the only one in the family who hasn’t switched over. We’re all excited to experience a real fall. Sonoma had it’s beautiful fall foliage but it was fleeting.
After walking about ten minutes along and across numerous canals from the surprisingly modern underground Delft train station, you walk out onto an enormous public plaza.
I was surprised at how large it is. There were no markets happening the weekday we visited and few tourists so it was nice to take in the expanse and to clearly see the beautiful buildings at either end. And of course, lots of bikes.
We went around the corner to a Cuban restaurant, Hermanos, for lunch. It was awesome even though they had run out of pulled pork that day, which is why the teen really wanted to go. Jammer! I just learned this means bummer in Dutch.
Tiny bridges are everywhere and very few cars, thankfully. One could spend days exploring Delft on foot.
There are charming cafes and restaurants throughout the center. Each has their own atmosphere. I wish we had bigger stomachs and a more patient teen to explore them all.
We also happened upon a few cozy, shaded plazas in our meanderings. I mentioned the impatient teen earlier, enough said. Next time we will actually stop here and have a drink!
There is more English spoken in Delft than in Haarlem, though everyone in Haarlem speaks perfect English too as we learned at our neighborhood block party last weekend. They even gave the annual speech in English just for us, which they didn’t need to do! We start our Dutch class this weekend. After two years of learning German, my poor brain will be learning a fourth language. Wish us luck or succes!