Wednesday May 6 - We took the train to Delft. It is about a one hour trip from Centraal. I loved seeing the countryside after a few days in busy, WATCH out for bikes Amsterdam! We got to the town center a little before at 10:00 so not much was open, including the tourist information center. After a very brief view of pottery painting, we went to Vermeer Museum. This museum was fantastic! It talked a lot about the history of Delft up until Vermeer and the time in which he lived: 1632-1674. His artistic influences (his dad was an art dealer) famous artists would come by to discuss their work and techniques. The Artist Guild met in Delft and he was around that from the time he was a boy. The museum went into great detail about the new ways Vermeer used light and colors to create light in his pieces.

We had coffee in the main square and kept an eye out for Candy and Eric. In the center of the square there is a statue of Hugo Grotius, born in Delft 1583. He established the international rules of the sea! The wind picked up as we sat there. A huge black cloud approached, the restaurant staff began taking down anything that could blow away in the outside seating where we were and then the rain started! We ran to the Newe Kerk (new church), right close to the restaurant. This was very interesting. William of Orange was buried there as has been almost all the royalty from The Netherlands, which are descendants of William of Orange. (He defeated the Spanish thus giving The Netherlands their independence). We then went up to the Olde Kerk (old church). This was not so interesting, but it was on the way back to the train station. Then we got back on the train and headed to Leiden.