29.09.08 Leiden to Delft

Moored in Leiden on the finger jetty behind us was a large cruiser bearing a British ensign. This is only the second British boat we have been within hailing distance of since we entered Holland.

Vivian and Pauline, of Aqua Lady, had tea and a long chat with us in the early evening, and before they left the following day, Alex had another gas and swapped more useful information, mostly from them to us as they have been summer cruising in Holland for 5 years or more and know most of the ropes.

We are now in Delft and have packed a lot into the last three days, as you do when you have a visitor, but it has been lovely having Alice to stay and it has given us a different focus for a while.

We picked her up from the station in Leiden on our trusty bikes. The suitcase went on Louise’s bike while Alice went side-saddle (Dutch style) on the back of Alex’s bike. We wobbled back to the boat.

We took Alice on a walking tour of the best bits of Leiden during the remainder of the day and still the sun shone and we had drinks on the deck in the evening.

We set off the next day having spent 3 nights in total in Leiden but only paid for two! One of the bridge-keepers was outside his door as we approached so Louise went forward to see if she could distract him with her charm into not charging for the extra night.

Success! But we did wonder as we went through the next few bridges if they would suddenly remember and keep us locked in!

We had a lovely journey as far as the sluis at Leidschendam where the lock/bridge-keeper told us that the next bridge was broken down (due to drunken vandal damage). Is nowhere safe? We could go no further until it was repaired. It was a lovely day and lunchtime, so we happily moored up (good moorings and free). The next day the bridge was reopened, we moved on to Voorbrug and caught the train for a quick 5 minute journey into Den Haag.

Den Haag, the seat of Dutch government and home of the royal family, is so totally different from the other towns and cities we have been to in Holland. It has much bigger squares, wider streets and larger, more imposing buildings and a more ‘planned’ feel to it. Our principal aim, of course, was the Mauritshuis Museum and, of course, the works of Vermeer, Rembrandt and other great Dutch artists. Fortunately (!) half the displays were closed and thus the price was much reduced, so we saw just exactly the right amount of Dutch art - any more and it would have been too much to take in. Of course we saw the purpose of the excursion, ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ and debated, again, that the earring was definitely not a pearl at all, much too large, wrong shape and colour, and discovered from the audio tour that the picture was almost certainly not of a real girl, but was painted more as a display of an art style. This was disappointing, but the picture was lovely.

Alice was keen to do a bit more boating so we trained it straight back to the very pretty Voorburg and motored on to Delft.

The moorings in Delft were said to be lovely, but they are right on a very main road with a T-junction and traffic lights and everything - all very busy. The harbour is overlooked mostly by fairly modern undistinguished office blocks. In fact, the burghers of Delft have destroyed the beautiful view of Delft made famous by Vermeer, and which we had seen ‘in the flesh’ the day before. We have been generally disappointed by Delft. The very centre has been largely retained and is pretty but all around seems to have been unsympathetically built and rebuilt.

We looked round the Oude Kerk and the Nieuwe Kerk and climbed the latter’s tower. The tower was great with two outside ‘balconies’ to walk round on the way up to the highest one allowed. Fantastic views but rather dull weather. Then it was back to Riccall for a quick lunch before seeing Alice onto the train to Schipol for her flight home.

We hope Alice enjoyed her weekend as much as we enjoyed having her.