Overnight in Delft

We only spent two days in Delft, and since the weather was particularly bad that weekend (incredibly windy both days with rain on the first), we didn't get to see what is probably the most popular attraction - the Porcelijn Fabriek (the Porcelain Factory).

We did walk around the local outdoor market, which, despite the weather, was wonderful! Lots of small fruit, vegetable, cheese, meat, fish and sweets vendors. Our favorite was the "Stroopwafel" vendor. Stroopwafels are a popular Dutch treat, usually eaten with coffee. They're round thin waffels with a sweet syrup in the middle. The vendor gave us one from his latest batch, and it was the best one I've ever had! (And I've sampled a few. . .)

Quick Tips:

Don't count on doing a lot of activities on Sundays. Almost every shop is closed, and only a couple museums are open for the afternoon. The Porcelain Factory is NOT open on Sundays. (We learned this the hard way.)

We did, however, buy a beautiful hand-painted Dutch tile from the late 1700s at a local antique shop called the Porcelijne Lampetkan, located near the Nieuwe Kerk. I would highly recommend visiting this store. Most of the items are antique pieces of Delft and antique maps, but we were thrilled to find such a lovely souvenir for only 30 Euros.

Best Way To Get Around:

We took the train from Amsterdam to Delft directly. It's only an hour and quite efficient and inexpensive. No connections necessary.

Once we arrived in Delft, we walked everywhere. It wasn't until we were leaving that I realized Delft even had a tram system. It's nothing like Amsterdam's however. It doesn't run through the center of the town - I imagine it just loops around it. Probably helpful in getting you from the train station to the popular Porcelain Factory though.

We found it very easy to walk everywhere in Delft - even with the bad weather.

We booked the hotel through a European hotel service (www.hrs.de), which we've had pretty good luck with in the past. It rated the Best Western Museum Hotel as a 4-star hotel, but I would dispute that based on our accommodations.

The hotel is located on a beautiful canal in central Delft, very close to the Oude Kerk. We were given room number 1 (a word of advice - avoid rooms 1 through 4). This was on the ground level in the back of the hotel, so no canal view. We actually had a partial view of a fenced dumpster. It wasn't really offensive (it didn't smell), but it wasn't what we wanted to look out on either. Otherwise the hotel was fine. Our room was small but adequate with a very small television and double bed. The bathroom was relatively nice with a full bathtub/shower and hairdryer.

Breakfast was included in our rate (75 Euros per night), which was a decent buffet with very pleasant wait staff. Everyone spoke English, so we didn't even have to try and speak our broken Dutch to them. A decent place, but you could likely do better at one of the smaller 3-star hotels.

We had a great dinner at the Spijshuis De Dis, located in the picturesque Beestenmarkt square, an easy 5-minute walk from the city's market square. The restaurant had a cozy and inviting atmosphere, or what the Dutch call "gezellig."

I tried their tomato and onion soup to start and a stew of beef, chicken and rabbit cooked with beer as my entree. The soup was an interesting mixture of two relatively strong flavors, served in a tasty bread bowl. The stew was delicious, packed with meat and vegetables.

My husband had their vegetable soup and a beef dish served in a red wine sauce. Both were quite tasty as well. We also sampled one of the many tempting desserts, which was quite good. Ours was a cake made of "ontbijt" (the Dutch sweet breakfast cake), chilled cream and cinnamon liquor, garnished with fresh fruit. It made for an interesting flavor.

The service was efficient and friendly, and we would definitely go back.

The Legermuseum literally means the Army Museum. The museum's admission is 5 Euros (as of 3/2004), and it's free to those with a Dutch museum card (a great investment if you'll be visiting a number of museums in the Netherlands).

It was oddly interesting, although I'm not sure I'd go back. To be honest, it was one of only a couple attractions open on Sundays, so that's what brought us there. On the ground floor, we were immediately immersed in a huge exhibition of modern weaponry, i.e. lots and lots of guns. The rest of the surprisingly large museum was impressive. They had lots of tanks, weapons, uniforms and just about anything else you can think of that's military-related. Also, they had a surprisingly educational and engaging separate exhibit space for children, mainly focused on medieval times with knights and castles and such. (I probably enjoyed this area more than the others intended for adults.)

The only down side was that most of the item descriptions were in Dutch without any English translations. My husband seemed to enjoy it, especially the temporary photography exhibit on Afghanistan. I found it intriguing, but in a slightly disturbing sort of way.