Today we went to Delft. We visited the "New Church" ("Nieuwe Kerk") in Delft (first built around 1380) then wandered around the market area.
We marred the day a bit by eating at a place where our order was taken and delivered with reasonable dispatch, but it seemed impossible to convince them to bring us a bill. 20 minutes after the waiter had first promised to bring it to us, I finally stood up to wait, and 5 minutes later I managed to literally trap him between some tables and get him to agree to bring the bill immediately. In retrospect, I should have simply set my fingers between my lips and started shrillely whistling. They would have wanted the ugly tourists out immediately... There are uses for stereotypes. :-)
We mended the day by going to one of two working Delftware factories, De Delftse Pauw ("The Delft Peacock"). We purchased a few pieces of real hand-painted Delftware as souvenirs and gifts. We learned that not all Delftware is blue, that the blue is black until it is fired, that the patterns are traced onto the plate with a carbon template (the carbon burns off in the kiln), and how they make molded porcelain hollow. It is much too thin to turn on a wheel... They have plaster-of-paris molds that are naturally hydrophilic. They pour very dilute clay solution into the molds and leave them sit. The longer they leave them, the more water the dry plaster pulls out of the clay and the thicker the shell gets. When the firm shell against the mold gets thick enough, the remaining clay solution is poured out. Then the mold is struck and the clay is trimmed, dried, and fired into bisque, and then is painted, glazed, and fired again.
Outside De Delftse Pauw, I did the best parallel parking job of my life, in a spot less than two feet longer than the car itself. When I got out to look, only the fact that I had put the car there kept me from worrying about how I would get the car out when we left. There really wasn't a good vantage place from which to take the picture, but if you look at it, I can tell you that there was less room in front of the car than you can see in the back of the car.
We came back to Utrecht in time to visit a little store selling wood toys and puzzles that is only open on Saturdays and some holidays (because the proprietor has a full-time job elsewhere). We ate supper from street vendors, purchased a notebook for Kim, and returned to De Uithof before 6 pm.
