Delft

Hi Peeps,

This weekend has been busy and keeps me busy though I can feel the flu creeping into my throat, head and nose. Flatmate has it so I guess I am next right. Anyway enough about that, I went traveling this weekend. Went to Delft and today I am heading to Amsterdam to meet up with a friend. 

This time in Delft I really got to see the city center and wow it is old, classic and beautiful! The old church 'Oude Jan' is pretty impressive with the tower leaning to one side just like the leaning tower of Pisa except it is not that famous though definitely worth seeing.  Though I went to Delft before it was mostly the new station and a neighborhood I saw. This time a friend of mine showed me the city center and told me what places was worth visiting. Willem van Oranje used to live there and he also got assassinated there in his home. An important Dutch guy from the history books you better look up ;) 

You see Willem helped fight off the Spanish king an his army back in the 1500-1600ś and he was later named Willem the Prince of Orange. He was the leader of the revolt and for the Dutch the reason why they are neither Spanish nor too Catholic anymore. It was gastly business to be a believer of any other faith than Catholicism before Willem helped to fight off the Spanish king and give people the freedom they clearly needed and wanted. There were public beheadings of Calvinistic people and their leaders, no freedom of faith as they would say in English before the Prince of Orange started fighting off the Catholic regime. There are books just dedicated to Willem Prince of Orange and it is a very interesting and cool story to read about so no joke that you should read about it! 

Anyway Willem moved to Delft in 1572 and made the Prince's Court over there as it was the safest city of the the Netherlands at the time with a good defense. His royal successors are buried in Delft as well in Nieuwe kerk. I found it very interesting to learn and as I was strolling up the street towards the place where he was put to rest the world stood still and I was alone with the history of the place for a moment. I pictured how it must have been like standing in that exact place more than 500 years ago and how dangerous the world was back then. Leaning on the bricks that protected the royal family back when royals still fought for their people and their country the way the young the young heroes must have done back then just took me back in time for a little moment. 

After the history lesson I went out in Delft and I was surprised how much fun that was. They really have a night life over there. Most of the bars seem to be named after a church or a Willem of Orange but despite that it is remarkable lots of places you can go to get nice drinks and grounded locals to chat with. Service was really good as well, I never had to wait long like I would in Utrecht or Amsterdam, the waitress or bartender was quick and very polite and lets not forget friendly.  For anyone with a nose for history and that likes to travel around the Netherlands then go to Delft and really take a historical tour through the streets. Totally distracted me from the worries of the world and sucked me into the world of history and gore for a while. Definitely need to go again, yet I had someone recommend some cities in Belgium yesterday. Was told if I liked Delft there are some places in Belgium that can even top that. I know someone i Belgium that I was thinking of visiting anyway so maybe this not such a bad idea after all. It is a plan in the making in any case.

More traveling awaits the Viking and I can not wait to write about it!

x Viking

Willem van Oranje (Google)