Today is Delft day – a place we’ve been before and enjoyed, but its been years, so we’re re-visiting to refresh our memories. There is a tram right at the Den Haag station that goes directly to Delft, and a one-day ticket is ridiculously cheap. All the transportation is ridiculously cheap. What happened to our country? we’re so spoiled over here, no need for a vehicle, the trains and trams and buses will take you everywhere, easily and quickly. Ok. Rant over.

The tram ride is (see above!!) easy and quick, depositing us right outside the old town center of Delft. Again, the architecture is just stunning, that old Dutch Gothic look. Even from outside the old town proper, you can see the Oude Kerk – Old Church – clock tower and spire looming over you as you enter the narrow little lanes leading you across the canal to reach the church.

Purchasing our tickets (2 for one, same ticket to enter the Nieuwe Kerk – New Church – as well), bonus! Dating from 1240, this is the oldest church in Delft. It is, as you would imagine, incredibly gorgeous with soaring marble pillars, huge flying buttressed ceiling and fabulous stained glass windows.

400 “well known (and less well known)” people are buried here, their graves marked with just a headstone or some with a mausoleum. Johannes Vermeer is buried here wit only a headstone! You’d think he would have a huge mausoleum, but no. Just this simple stone.

Now it is time to immerse ourselves in all that is Vermeer. On the site of the building that used to house the St. Luke’s Gilde, the guild of painters and artists that Vermeer visited regularly, is the Vermeer Centrum Delft – a museum of sorts that provides history, stories and explanations behind most of Vermeer’s paintings. There are no originals here – only reproductions, but each has an explanation and story that goes with it. It is more like an intense school course on Vermeer – but a fascinating one at that. We learn about Vermeer’s upbringing with his father who was a weaver, owned an inn and was also an art dealer. Obviously influenced by his father, and the artists who came to eat at drink at the inn, Vermeer studied among them and came into his own as a painter. His use of light and masterful skill at manipulating colors is plain to see.

We spend a good amount of time wandering in and out of rooms with the painting reproductions. In a way it is better here, we can spend time really studying the paintings and learning about the artist, as opposed to fighting crowds in museums, jostling just to get a few moments glimpse of the original.

There are even some fun interactive areas where you can be in the painting, like the one with table and window and light behind it, or the Girl with the Pearl Earring cut out in front of the building. Also a really cool photographic montage interpretation of the Girl in today’s world. Very worthwhile visit.

Finished with our Vermeer education, we wander through the picturesque cobbled streets, across canals and onto the main Markt Square, bracketed by the Stadhuis on one end and Nieuwe Kerk on the other.

Before touring the Nieuwe Kerk, we decide to climb the clock tower. What ensues is a bit of exercise – 376 stairs and 85 meters (or about 300 feet) worth of exercise – but with fabulous viewing rewards. The vistas up here are just stunning – well worth the climb. We took far too many pictures (of course, when do we not?) and had the best time climbing up past the clock machinery, walking around the narrow balcony walkway and through the parapets.

We could have stayed up there for hours. We were all alone forever, but then others began to arrive, and the solitude was shattered. Time to descend! And so descend we did, down to the main church to tour the church that was built because Symon, a beggar, experienced a vision, at dawn one morning, of a golden church with Mary seated on a throne right in the Markt square. After Symon’s death, another man, Jan Col, witnessed the same thing and pleaded with the city council to build a church. In 1381 a temporary wooden church was built (“new” being relative here) and the rest is history – so to speak! Although the church became much more important in the 1500’s when it became the final burial place of William of Orange, the father of the country.

We took a quick tour around, as in our mind the Oude Kerk was much more picturesque and had far more atmosphere. Then we wandered about the Markt square, snapping shots of the clock tower. We were all the way up at the top there! Wow. That is way high up there!

On our way back to the tram stop, we decide to detour to the Prisenhof museum, completely forgetting the fact that it is closed today – it is Monday after all. We were luck the Vermeer center was open. We console ourselves with a nice little stroll around their beautifully landscaped little garden area, then head back to the tram.

Instead of going right back to Den Haag though, we stay on the tram all the way to Scheveningen beach, a place we’ve read has huge wide beaches with lots of seaside activities and a beachfront promenade. Really? Being geographically challenged as I am, I just never really thought about there being a seafront or beach here. Of course, why wouldn’t there be? We are right off the English Channel in the North Sea. I just never thought about it.

Scheveningen is as promised, this huge wide beach with a seaside promenade running alongside it and a fabulous old elegant hotel, the Kurhaus, built in 1885 and frequented by the wealthy and well to do who wanted to take in the healing properties of the sea water and air. On the beach, however, as it is winter here, well, at least late Fall, there are no beachfront activities going on. As a matter of fact there are workers tearing down and closing up the beachfront restaurants.

It is nigh upon lunch time, actually, for us, it is way past, so we begin our hunt for a restaurant. We find a solution at Steam, a great bar and restaurant with a Victorian area theme that focuses on, yes, you guessed it Steam technology. It is a lovely place to sit inside by the open front window overlooking the patio, but protected from the wind, and dig into some excellent fish and chips and a nice small plate of brown bread and shrimp croquettes. A perfect later afternoon meal for us.

To walk off our lunch we head out to the pier that juts out over the water. A lovely walk, and fun people watching, as well as beautiful views up and down the coast. The Eye wheel is wild! And while the views must be amazing, no way, no how would we ever get on that thing – too high, too close to the water – heck, it’s over the water. Shiver.

Our tram ride back is uneventful, and since we ate lunch so late we figure there is no reason to go out for a big meal, but instead stay home and have our signature travel dinner, scrambled eggs and chorizo – ok, well, not exactly chorizo, but diced sausage pieces taken from the packages of sausage we bought in Spain and are hauling along with us for snacks everywhere we go! A lovely little dinner and peaceful evening in Den Haag.