Delft is a city in the province of South Holland (Zuid-Holland), the Netherlands. It is located in between Rotterdam and The Hague. Delft is primarily known for its typically Dutch town centre (with canals); also for the painter Vermeer, Delft Blue pottery (Delftware), the Delft University of Technology, and its association with the Royal Family. The association of the House of Orange with Delft began when William of Orange (Willem van Oranje), nicknamed William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger), took up residence there in 1572. William was the leader at the time in the struggle against the Spanish, the Eighty Years' War. Delft was one of the leading cities of Holland and was equipped with the necessary city walls to serve as a headquarters. When William was shot to death in 1584 by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof, the family's traditional burial place in Breda was in the hands of the Spanish. Therefore, he was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day.
Delft is more than 750 years old. Its name is derived from 'delven' which means delve or digging. Delfts oldest canal is called The Old Delft (de Oude Delft). Delft expanded around it; later on many other city-canals were dug as life lines through the city. These grachten are still the pride of Delft.
In 1246 Delft got city rights, granted by Holland's Duke William II. Delft grew prosperous and new neighbourhoods were added to the city. In 1355 it reached the size it would remain at until the 1900s.
In 1536 a great fire destroyed 2300 houses. Most likely lightning struck the tower of The New Church. About 100 years later, in 1654, an explosion destroyed large parts of town; a warehouse with 36000 kg of gunpowder blew up. A new warehouse (Kruithuis) was later built, outside the city perimeter.
Delft has long been a centre of art and science. With the foundation of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) in 1602, Delft also became a trading center. The VOC was at one time the largest trading company in the world, with a huge fleet and offices all over Asia. One of the Dutch offices was in Delft.
In 1842 the Royal Academy for Civil Engineering (Koninklijke Acedemie voor Burgerlijke Ingenieurs) is founded. Nowadays know as Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) it is Delfts biggest employer. About 13.000 students study in Delft.
Markt - This is the biggest market sqaure in Netherlands. On it's surrounding , lies the town hall, new church and other old buildings which regarded as main sights in Delft. Every Thursday, there will be an open market on the square.
The Water tower (above, left picture) - The tower was built in 1895 in neo-renaissance style, after a design of the city council architect M.A.C. Hartman,. It contains a water reservoir of 600.000 litre water. Since 1st February 2008 the Water tower of Delft is open to the public. The beautiful monument is restyled into a water shop, meeting place and viewpoint.The Water tower also has an agenda of its own with activities in the field of personal growth and self-consciousness.
Molen de Roos (Windmill the Rose) (above, left picture) was used to grind flour. Nowadays the windmill can be visited on Saturdays.
The narrow streets of Delft.
The City Hall (above, left picture) (Local Name: Stadhuis) On the west side of the Markt, standing alone, is the Delft Town Hall (Stadhuis), in Renaissance style (facade restored 1966), which contains a number of fine paintings of the 16th-18th centuries. The original Town Hall was built in the early 13th century; then in the 15th century a stone tower, known as Het Steen, was built on the brick substructure of the original tower. In 1618 the Town Hall was destroyed by fire, leaving only the tower still standing, and was then rebuilt in its present form by Hendrick de Keyser. The facade is richly articulated by pilasters and sculpture. On the small gable is a figure of Justice. In the interior are a number of handsome rooms, including the Orange . These days the council meetings are held in the town hall and part of the building is used for weddings. The Townhall can be visited with groups.
The Prinsenhof (above, right picture) Opposite the Oude Kerk of Delft, at Agathaplein 1, is a picturesque group of buildings, the Prinsenhof. Built around 1400 as the nunnery of St Agatha, it was secularized after the Reformation and from 1575 was the residence of the Princes of Orange until Prince Maurice of Orange moved the seat of government to The Hague. The Prinsenhof has tragic associations in the history of the Netherlands, for it was here that William the Silent was assassinated in 1584. The mark of the bullet which killed him can still be seen on the staircase leading to the dining room.
William I, Prince of Orange (above, left picture) (April 24, 1533—July 10, 1584), also widely known as William the Silent (Dutch: Willem de Zwijger), or simply William of Orange (Dutch: Willem van Oranje), was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born into the House of Nassau as a count of Nassau-Dillenburg. He became Prince of Orange in 1544 and is thereby the founder of the branch House of Orange-Nassau.
A wealthy nobleman, William originally served the Habsburgs as a member of the court of Margaret of Parma, governor of the Spanish Netherlands. Unhappy with the lack of political power for the local nobility and the Spanish persecution of Dutch Protestants, William joined the Dutch uprising and turned against his former masters. The most influential and politically capable of the rebels, he led the Dutch to several successes in the fight against the Spanish. Declared an outlaw by the Spanish king in 1580, he was assassinated by Balthasar Gérard (also written as 'Gerardts') in Delft four years later. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Silent)
The Dutch have been making cheese since 400 AD. Nowadays, Holland is the largest exporter of cheese in the world. Its dairy industry as a whole has a turnover of around Euro 7 billion. Cheese markets are still held in Holland. Some are just for tourists, such as the Alkmaar, Hoorn and Edam markets, but they are still worth seeing. The traditional cheese market trade is re-enacted in these towns every summer in front of the gorgeous old cheese weigh houses. The ritual features cheese bearers donning straw hats, brightly colored wooden stretchers and lots of cheese. The Cheese Museum in Alkmaar is also worth a visit.
The cheese markets at Woerden and Gouda are the only remaining functioning commercial markets. Farmers from the area have their cheese weighed, tasted and priced here. Cheese has been traded on the Gouda cheese market for over three hundred years. Buy some Gouda cheese there, or peruse the many exhibitions related to cheese production surrounding the market. At Woerden, you can buy boerenkaas, delicious artisanal raw milk farmhouse cheese. Some farmers also open their farms up to the public for tours and tasting sessions.
Dutch Cheese Varieties
- Gouda - The cheese is named after the city of Gouda in the Netherlands, but its name is not protected. Gouda cheese is made and sold all around the world.Gouda cheese makes up about 50% of the cheese production in Holland, making it our most important and best-known cheese. Gouda is a semi-hard cheese with a 48 % milk fat content and a mild taste. Ageing intensifies the flavor and hardness. Gouda usually comes in cheese wheels weighing 26.5 pounds (12 kilos) and Baby Goudas of half a pound to a pound (250 g to a kilo). Beemster, Reypenaer and Old Amsterdam are popular commercial brands.
- Edam - Edam cheese is the second most important cheese in the Netherlands, making up 27% of our total cheese production. Edam is semi-hard, with a fat content of 40% and a very mellow, salty taste that appeals to all ages. Ageing intensifies the flavor and hardness. The cheese has a typical round shape and weighs 4 pounds (1.7 kilos). Baby Edammers weigh half a pound (1 kilo). Export versions often have a red paraffin coating. Westland exports good Edam cheese, but whatever brand you buy, make sure it is from Holland. Cheap imitations that taste nothing like the original abound, unfortunately.
- Maasdammer - Maasdammer cheese represents 15% of Dutch cheese production. It has large holes, a domed shape and a sweet, nutty taste. The shape, typical taste and holes are created by special bacteria that release gases during the maturation process. Leerdammer and Maasdam are the best known brands of Maasdammer cheese.
- Boerenkaas - Boerenkaas (literally, farmer cheese) is a raw milk cheese, i.e. unpasteurized. By law, at least half of the milk used in the production of boerenkaas should come from the farm's own cattle. The other half may be purchased from no more than two other dairy farms. This ensures an artisanal product.
- Goat's cheese - Dutch goat's cheese is available as the familiar fresh, soft goat's cheese we all know and in the semi-hard Gouda style. The advantage of this goat's cheese is that it needs a shorter maturation process than cheese made from cow milk. Semi-hard goat's cheese is pale, with a slightly piquant taste, but a creamy melt-in-the-mouth texture. Look out for aged Bettine Grand Cru , which was chosen 2006 Best Cheese of the World during the annual Nantwich International Cheese Show in England.
- Smoked cheese - Smoked cheese is melted and smoked, and then reconstituted into sausage-like shapes. It is usually sold in slices and has a distinctive brown rind and a smoky taste.
- Frisian clove cheese - This cheese is made with low fat milk, cumin and cloves. The cheese is quite firm in texture and comes in a wheel with sharp edges. A long ripening process creates a hard, dry and somewhat tart cheese.
- Leidse cheese - The original cumin cheese from Leiden is dry, piquant and somewhat tart. It has a fat percentage of 40%. Ageing intensifies the cumin flavor. Boeren Leidse (Farmhouse Leidse) has a fat percentage of 20% and a dark red rind with the Leiden city crest (keys) on it.
- Herb cheese - This category includes cheeses that are flavored with herbs such as parsley and chives, but also more unusual ones such as nettles, mustard, onion or pepper.
The dutch have been wearing wooden shoes since the thirteenth century and millions of farmers, children, artisans, working people and gardeners still wear them every day, keeping up a beautiful tradition!
Farmers, market-gardeners and so on are most of the time wearing wooden shoes. That is because it's very handy to wear them when you walk on dirty ground. It's also to protect yourself. You can wear boots of rubber, so you won't get dirty feet, socks and trousers (at the underside of course). But there are some disadvantages when you wear boots instead of wooden shoes! If you are a gardener you probablly won't need wooden shoes, but if you are a farmer and you have some dangerous, sharp objects on your farmyard, and it would be everything except nice to have the weight of a cow on, a nail, a point of a pitchfork or something like that in your feet, therefore you can better wear wooden shoes, because:
- They protect you! You won't feel or you won't even notice when you are standing on the point of a nail, because the nail won't get into your wooden shoes. And if you do the same (standing on a nail) when you are wearing boots of rubber you'll scream and maybe even cry because it hurts terribly to stand on a sharp point.
Accommodation - If you are looking for accommodation in Delft, you can find many cheap hotels, bed and breakfast, you just have to search the internet.
*(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delft)
