From magnificent to miniature - a world of contrasts

Its a lot cooler this morning.
We have booked breakfast in the restaurant and apart from that awful artificial orange juice that you find all over the world, the breakfast offerings match the dinner from last night. Scrambled eggs, bacon for Donna on toast,lots of fresh fruit including one of the palest pineapples I have ever seen - but so deliciously ripe, to the customary European cheeses and meats and salad ingredients.

We plan our day out before we set off. We will start in the Gouda Markt Square. The cheese markets are not on until tomorrow, but a local flea market is set up with the sellers doing a roaring trade - not dissimilar to our markets back in Maryborough - minus the fruit and vegetables.


There are a number of historic buildings we want to see. One of the former civic buildings houses a chiming character moving clock, donated to the City in 1961 to commemorate the granting of the City status to Gouda in 1272.

the Cheese guild building now houses the Tourist Information Centre.  You should see the crowd in here!  You ca purchase cheese, buy souvenirs, watch a Gouda making workshop and more.  Too bad we cannot bring the real McCoy back in to Australia with us.

But the building we are really here to see today is the Sint-Janskerk  with its 72 magnificent stained glass windows. (I am just realising that the word of this trip is magnificent!)
We buy tickets from a man who worked in Gladstone in the metals market, its a small world . . .  You can choose to do a self guided tour or a follow the numbers tour. We plug our headsets in to the guide tablet, choose self guided and promptly primarily follow the

numbers.  This church and its windows are (wait for it) M A G N I F I C E N T.  This is the longest church in the Netherlands and at 123 meters it is also the tallest church in the Netherlands. The building is so large that it is impossible to get the whole of it in amongst the tight little streets around it.  No problem - there is a scale model inside!

Dating back to 1530, much of it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1552. Shortly after the disaster, the directors commissioned to build the most spectacular church in Holland. Initially built as a Catholic Church, after the Reformation it became a Protestant Church and survives as this today (c.1579). A magnificent pulpit was put in the church and the catholic alter relegated to a back corner of the choir.

But the real claim to fame are the 72 splendid windows and the burial stones - the oldest one I found was 1561.  All the windows tell stories, with most of them being biblical, but a few are historic. They have to be seen to be believed. During WWII, the windows were dismantled and stored in strong boxes across the City.

After a number of hours staring jaw-dropped, we left Gouda (after a Cloudy home-made lemonade) and buy some siroopwaffles for later.

We programmed the car for Kinderdijk (Kinderdyke) about an hours drive. Here there are about 20 windmills lining one of the canals, some working, others not, and in a variety of styles and ages and the vista is very popular.  The locals have a 'magnificent' view and there are lots of Porsches in the narrow streets. We are wowed again and again.

BUT the day is not yet finished,

back in to the car we go and head for the miniature world at Madurodam which is found in The Hague. We left this until last, hoping to stay until the lights are turned on. Again we are moved by the story behind this 'magnificent' miniature world.  All structures are constructed to 1/25 scale and include historic monuments, many of which we saw in-situ today, through to modern operations including Amsterdam Airport and the Hoek de Hook port.  About now, the temperature plummets and the light drizzle starts to get heavier.  We have rushed through much of the site and now head for the souvenir shop and the restaurant to wait for the lights. About 7 pm we decide to leave and beat the traffic that will all leave at 8 pm when they close.

It rains all the way back to the hotel and we are happy to pull in to the parking lot just before 8 pm.
Rain is expected tomorrow so we are planning a day with indoor visits, although we are hoping to get to the Gouda Cheese Market. We need to be back at Amsterdam Airport about 4 pm to get our flight to Oslo, Norway!

Blog is now up to date!

Today was Blue and White with a whole lot of love thrown in

This blog post relates to Tuesday 13 August (but was posted on 14th)

It was an interesting start to the day, hauling suitcases along the cobbled Overtoom Street in Amsterdam from the hotel to Europcar and all the time having to keep your wits about you in terms of avoiding the cyclists rushing at speed to work.


We were upgraded to a Renault Megane for the same price as the much smaller Yaris. Rather nice to have the extra space. As we leave Robby at Europcar, we ask for directions towards Delft and he says "turn right" but when we turn the GPS on, it wants us to do U-turn.  And of course,we do (after having to cross into the tram lane to pass the double parked Europcar tow truck!  A 'Uie' at traffic lights here, when you are in the car on the 'other side of the road' for the first time in years is a little daunting. And half a dozen blocks down the road, the road is shut for roadworks.  We lost about 20 minutes in and out of tiny back residential streets to get passed this.
Finally we are headed out of Amsterdam and towards the west-south to Delft. The journey will take just over an hour.They are transluscent and quite hard to take a good photograph of.

I'm more than little excited as Anne Blyth (Zenz) is flying in from London to have the day with us!  I haven't seen here since we went to her wedding in Germany two years ago. Rather than us negotiate the Amsterdam airport traffic, she will train it to Delft and we will collect her there. Anne's train is due in at 10:15 and we end up parking in what we thought was a quiet little shortcut to a new estate (road very poorly constructed) only to find that it is a major traffic route. As Anne walks on to the footpath, we pull up.

She is looking fabulous and has very generously got out of bed at 4 am to come and meet us. Hugs all round and a catch up on immediate family and friend news while we drive the short distance to the Royal Delft factory and museum. As none of us had had breakfast, we headed to the coffee shop for some brunch before we explored.  More chatting and catching up. Anne sends love to all and sundry back in Australia.

And then we are off. The museum is a beautiful history not only of the company that dates back to 1653, and the social history of Delft (and The Netherlands to a degree).  The displays are of a very high quality with much of the dialogue that describes the items and events not on board, but on tightly stretched, screen-printed very fine nylon panels.

The company employees are all very proud of the company that they work for and genuinely share their knowledge.  A piece of Delftware is made across three stages. The blank is cast in mould with liquid clay which, when dried is painted with a white glaze and then decorated with metal oxides, in particular the cobalt oxide that gives the usual blue, and can withstand high firing temperatures, allowing it to be applied under the glaze. Interestingly, that metal oxide is painted on black and only when it is fired, does the stunning blue emerge.  It takes 10 years to train one of the painters.  There were two working while we were there and they happily chatted with us all.

Royal Delft China was only for the wealthy during the Golden Age in the Netherlands in the 17th Century.  A comparison of the value is:

However, we soon learn that the real status symbol is having your portrait done in Royal

Delft.  This was the way to show your wealth and prosperity.  Even today, you can have your portrait painted on a plate.  Thankfully, i'm not that important, nor that vain!  There are lots and lots of examples - from guild groups to families and to individuals.
We wander through the museum and eventually in to the factory when we see staff fixing a problem with the clay sludge, lots of moulds, pieces in various phases of production and some special orders.

Back through the Company timeline and out into the souvenir shop. Be nice to me - I might have just bought a little something for you as a memento! I chose to have it shipped to Australia - no chance of me losing it, or breaking them.  I did make a little indulgence - one of the Proud Mary's.  I had looked these up before I left home.  Th only ones available now are the medium sized ones - they are stunning and the large one in the historic garden is so beautiful!

Anne must be on the 4:15 train at the lastest to make her flight connection back to London Stanstead. Before we drop her off at the station, we have a light lunch and toasted the friendships with a prosecco.  And finally it is time to say goodbye for the moment.  I will ever be grateful for the love she showed me by making the trip as she has to work

again tomorrow. She took home with her the obligatory Tim Tams and a copy of all the photos we took at her and Steve's wedding.

Donna and I had not yet decided where to stay tonight, and given the time, choose to drive across to Gouda (Gowda not Gooda).  We pull up in the carpark of the local McDonalds and made a booking at the Campanile Hotel Restaurant.  It is nothing fancy, but we really only need to put our heads somewhere for a night. Instead of going out to dinner, we decided to try their restaurant

and were so very pleasantly surprised.  Donna order a rare Rump Steak while I ordered Chicken Satay. Not only was the food as ordered, moist and tender, but young Victor was an attentive but not overbearing server.

A fabulous day of love.