I was in Delft, a canal city in the western part of the Netherlands, for three weeks in 2018 to attend a training course at the International Water Institute in Solid Waste Management. I made a number of observations in addition to learning so much about composting and recycling, etc.
1. Royal Delft Pottery
Delft is the manufacturing hub of Delftware or Delft pottery. This is hand-painted and tin-glazed blue and white pottery. My colleague and I visited the Royal Delft Museum one Saturday to see the beautiful pottery. It was an extremely long walk from the tram station, but it was absolutely worth it! We saw artisans in the process of making the pottery. The whole experience appealed to my artistic soul, and I was very inspired.
2. Flowers on window sills
It was so heart-warming to see almost each window sill decorated with potted plants and flowers. This presented a very picturesque scene. Coupled with the open curtains or the lack of curtains in most windows, the living rooms of the homes looked so open and inviting. They also let in a lot of sunlight. I could only quickly glance at these homes when walking by as it was rude to stop and stare.
3. Bicycle riding
Delft is a city where bicycle riding is very common. This is no wonder since we know the Netherlands as the “land of bicycles”. I once saw a lady riding a bicycle with a wagon attached. The wagon held her two children. The simplicity of all of this in a developed country struck me profoundly. Life can indeed be as simple or as complicated as we make it.
4. Canals and bricked-up windows
We also know Delft for its beautiful canals. The canals were dug in the 12th and 13th centuries for the shipping of goods and the discharge of water. My colleague and I went on a canal cruise and toured the city. Our tour guide pointed out to us some houses which had bricked-up window spaces. She indicated that in the 18th century, people sealed their windows to avoid paying window tax, which was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. Thus, having fewer windows meant paying fewer taxes. Unfortunately, this resulted in the homes having less illumination. Hence the phrase, ‘daylight robbery’ emerged as a metaphorical expression to convey the perceived injustice of this method of taxation, which originated in England.
5. Interesting cuisine
I must confess that I was not bold enough to taste the famous Dutch dish of raw herrings with pickles and onions. However, I sampled ‘kaassoufle’, which is cheese dipped in batter and deep fried. It was very tasty, although I found the concept of fried cheese quite incredulous. I also enjoyed ‘bitterballen’, which is Dutch deep-fried, bread-crumbed meat balls. This was usually served with Dutch fries or ‘frites’ and some mustard. And I absolutely loved the Dutch treat of ‘stroopwafel’, which is a thin, round waffle cookie made from two layers of sweet baked dough held together by a syrup filling.
6. Catching the bus
My colleague and I had the unfortunate experience of being left by the bus one day when returning to our hotel. After a long walk in town, we were rather tired and sat on the bench at the bus stop. We erroneously assumed that the scheduled bus would stop when the bus driver saw us sitting there. To our surprise, at the scheduled time, we saw the bus drive past us! Apparently, we had to be standing at the bus stop and even wave down the bus to indicate to the driver that we were waiting for the bus. A driver who saw you sitting on a bench at a bus stop could assume that you were just taking a rest or keeping warm.
Alas, we had to wait for about 40 minutes for the next bus and it was getting cold and late. This event reminded me of a similar experience of being stranded at Phoenix Zoo in the United States. Having learnt our lesson, when it was about 15 minutes to the scheduled time, we stood resolutely at the bus stop, determined that the driver would not leave us behind this time. We eagerly waved down the bus and got onto it fortunately. What an experience!
On the whole, I learnt a lot from my brief stay in Delft. From learning about different ways of doing things to sampling different cuisine and seeing new places, it was an awesome experience! As Saint Augustine said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” May we endeavour to travel and see the outside world rather than be limited to our comfort zones. Cheers to more travels!
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