I am now in the historic center of Delft.
We’re going to take a tour today
Delft is very very beautiful.
It’s really really old.
It’s the place Vermeer really liked to paint.
Although all of the artwork is in the Hague, people are very proud that Vermeer called
this place home.
The Girl with a Pearl earring was actually painted here in Delft.
One thing that we don’t get in either Canada or America is good bread.
When I first moved to the US, I thought the bread sucked - even worse than it does in
Canada.
But here, they know how to make bread.
Delft has a place called the Vermeer center.
You can go in and learn about the life and times of Vermeer and see some of his works.
The Girl with a pearl earring is, of course, in the Hague, but there’s other stuff here
as well.
I’m not going to go in.
I’m a little bit museumed-out after yesterday,.
But it’s definitely an option here if you want to go in and check out the life of Vermeer.
Behind me here is the New Church.
It is really, really tall.
And it’s the place where William of Orange is.
His tomb is in there, so we’re gonna go in and check that out.
I’m about to walk up the tower right now.
And they recommended I do this first because it’s early in the morning now and it’s
better to get the exercise now than later in the day when you’re a little bit worn
out.
So let’s go.
I’m halfway up the tower.
Actually, I’m about a quarter of the way up the tower, and I’m wishing it had an
elevator already!
These steps are really steep.
It’s really good exercise.
I only thought I was at the top.
Apparently, there’s a long way to go!
You can hear the pendulum going in the background.
I am definitely not in the shape I once was. [breathing heavily]
Although I would like to meet the guy who had to walk up these steps 4-5 times
a day.
He must have been in excellent shape!
I made it to another level!
How did they get this stuff up here? [laughs]
This stuff is way bigger than the width of those steps.
Maybe back in Medieval times they had cranes we didn’t know about or something.
But this stuff looks really heavy and I don’t now how they got it up here.
Really cool looking though!
I haven’t made it to the top yet.
So I’m missing the bells.
Well, I made it to the top of the tower.
And for this view it was totally worth it!
Just look at that.
I’m not sure how far up we are, but it’s pretty high.
The good news is I’m a couple of kilos lighter than when I started.
But this is an amazing view.
I’ll put a little information about the tower so you will know how to get here, how much
it costs to get in, and how high it is.
But for now, I’m going to go enjoy the sights from the top.
That was incredible. That’s an amazing view up here.
But all amazing views must come to an end, so now I gotta make my way down.
Hopefully, the walk down is gonna be a little bit better than the walk up.
We’ll see.
And it’s a good thing too, because I am running out of battery on my camera.
I forgot to bring the extra one.
It’s in my backpack that I put in a storage locker downstairs.
Here we go - all the way down.
Right now, we’re in the New Church.
But before I show you around, I want to give you a little bit of advice for the tower:
First of all, it’s a lot of steps, so if you have any mobility issues at all, you might
not want to do it.
It’s really, really high and it’s a lot of exercise.
And of course obviously wheelchairs, people using crutches - it’s just not possible.
When you’re coming down though, you sometimes get into a rhythm where you’re doing dut-dut-dut-dut-
going down.
Just be very careful because there are places where you can bump your head.
And, too, while most of the steps are uniform, there are a few steps that are a little bit
thinner.
So if you get into that rhythm, you might miss them and tumble down.
Be very careful.
But it’s totally worth it.
Just an amazing view, as you saw.
But just take those things into consideration before you go there.
Now let’s go look at the church!
This is the burial monument of King William of Orange.
It’s the biggest thing in this church - even bigger than the altar.
All of the brick that you see behind me here was once overlaid with white plaster.
And it was taken off quite some time ago to reveal the natural brick which, I think you’ll
agree probably looks a lot better than the white plaster that was there before.
It’s got some amazing stained glass windows.
And it’s just a huge church!
One of the reasons I like going to churches like this is that I get to see some of the
historical figures that I grew up learning about in history books.
For example, William of Orange - here at this church.
It still gives you a little bit of goosebumps knowing that someone who is important in the
history of the world - you saw where they were buried.
So, I like to see things like that.
It was just an amazing church.
And that’s the NEW one, so I can’t even imagine what the old one looks like.
And that’s where we’re going next.
And now we’re inside the old church.
And see this stucco here?
I would imagine that’s what the new church looked like before they removed all the stucco
and exposed the old brick.
I think the stucco looks fine.
But I think the brick does look a lot better and more genuine.
So let’s take a little tour of this place.
I don’t even know anything about it, so
I’m just kinda going to be making it up as I go along.
I don’t know who this guy is, but he looks to be someone important.
He’s at the head of the church.
He looks to be someone that was really highly thought of.
OK, we’ll go to Wikipedia….and I think I found out who this guy is.
It looks like he is naval hero, Piet Hein.
And if you can see from the inscription up here, which is in Latin,
it says “Petrus Heinius” - so I am assuming it’s the same guy.
One of the things that I’ve been feeling a bit guilty about in this church is that
everywhere you go, you’re walking on graves.
There’s really not anywhere else to walk, so you have to walk over these people’s
graves who been buried, you know.
for hundreds of years.
It feels a little disrespectful.
One thing is for sure though.
It is freezing in here!
I’m not sure if they still have church services, but [exhaling] I can sort of see my breath.
But it’s really beautiful in here and it’s really quiet.
And one of the things you’ll notice is that there are small white boxes like the one here
behind me that show you the important people who are buried here and gives you a little
bit of a history of their contributions to Dutch society.
So that’s really cool.
And that’s another way I found out that Piet Hein was the person who was lying over there.
Right behind me is the mausoleum, or grave, of a man named Maarten Tromp.
He’s a Dutch naval hero.
And his last name is Tromp - T-R-O-M-P - not T-R-U-M-P - this guy actually served his country honorably.
It’s really cool to see him as well.
Probably not gonna put that in the video.
We’ll get some “Trump Trolls” in the comments.
Another gentleman and I were looking very hard for the grave of Johannes Vermeer.
We saw this marker here and we expected it to be one of the larger gravestones.
But, it turns out, a very small gravestone compared to the other ones.
So it was a little bit hard to find.
Plus, it’s a little worn down.
I suspect that because people have been bending down and touching it for basically hundreds
of years.
So if you’re looking for it, it’s a little grave right at the head of the marker.
One thing that always amazes me about Europe and other places is the sheer size of the churches.
If you look behind me, you can see that’s the New Church.
And I’m not sure exactly what this one is.
But they are just massive, massive structures.
And you have to think that a large portion of the treasury of these countries at the
time was just poured into building these massive, massive houses of worship.
I don’t know how they could afford to do anything else, really.
But it just gives you a little bit of insight into the power of the church and the riches
that were kinda hoarded by the churches back then.
Probably to the detriment of the people who attended the churches - if they were even allowed to attend at all.
When you buy a ticket to the churches and the tower, with your ticket you can go to
a coffee shop later and get free coffee at a select few coffee shops around the church.
I decided to up the ante a little bit with this delicious brownie.
I think I'm making a big mistake here.
I think I’m gonna be wired for the rest of the day.
It’s delicious.
More stairs.
It’s cold up here though.
Oh well.
Onward and upward as they say.
I think I’ll rest for a minute.