Delft

We're at an internet cafe right now in Delft. We won't have a computer until John starts work on Thursday, and this is the first time we've had to sit down in an internet cafe. The internet computers at the hotel are soooo expensive--about 2 euros for 10 minutes! We found an apartment, but can't move in until September. 9. It seems to be a really nice place in a great location - 2 bedrooms, one of which opens onto the living room so we can use it as an office when we don't have company. We looked at 11 apartments last Tuesday and although we took pictures, we're sure there will be surprises when we move in and discover things we hadn't noticed or forgot about!It's kind of just like vacation right now since John's not working and we're living in a hotel.

We've both realized that it's probably a good idea for us to learn some Dutch. Everyone speaks English, but when there's more than one Dutch person together, they'll speak Dutch and we have no idea what's going on. Also, a lot of things (like menus!) are written in Dutch. We're slowly learning some words - very few! We've been told it'll be like we're on vacation for about 3 months before the negative aspects of culture shock really sets in. We applied for our residence permit last week, and visited the windmills in Kinderdijk--that's a story for a future entry (or see www.kinderdijk.nl if you really can't wait, but we promise our story will be more entertaining).

Today we're in Delft. The weather is sooooo nice...kind of like spring temperatures. Apparently the weather this summer has been a lot of clouds and rain. It seems that we brought the sunny weather with us from Texas--they've been telling us this is the best weather they have had since early June.

We arrived in Delft by train this morning at about 10:00 a.m. (that's 3:00 a.m. for you Texans out there). We were a bit nervous about our Zomertour train passes--when we bought them we were under the impression that this was a 10-day pass, with unlimited travel throughout the country by bus, tram, or train for any three days during the 10-day window. The first of these days was Saturday, when we went to Kinderdijk (more about this later). Today when we arrived at the station, when we were trying to figure out how to use our tickets for a second day, we realized that the tickets were only good for 2 days. We got a little nervous when the conductor came by to check our tickets because John couldn't quite figure out how to stamp the tickets correctly. Everything turned out okay, and we didn't get slapped with a 35 euro fine.

After walking around for only a few minutes in Delft, we found a 13th century church called Oude Kerk (meaning Old Church--an appropriate name we think). The Delft physicist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek is buried here--he's the guy who invented the microscope. The most notable feature of this church is the leaning tower--we've been told this might be the result of the church being built on top of a canal. We also visited Nieuwe Kerk. This one was built in the 14th century, so it is considered "new". The mausoleum of Prince William of Orange is inside. Erin knows all about this, but John has only limited knowledge because he got tired of reading all the signs.

We then took a short stroll across the city to the Royal Delft factory. That's where they make those blue-and-white porcelain plates and vases and some other stuff. It was all quite impressive, even more so when we learned that they are all painted by hand. You can't really go to school to learn how to do it, so after the company hires its workers they go through a 5-year training program before they can even begin. Then, they go through more training to earn the title of "Master Painter." We saw some porcelain windmills that we really wanted to purchase for each of our friends back home, but then we noticed the 700 euro pricetag and gently set the windmill back on the shelf. Maybe we'll have to settle for those cute little salt and pepper shakers.

We're paying for our internet by the minute over here, so we must go catch the train. Stay tuned for the story of Kinderdijk and other adventures...