Good Times in Delft

Well, Amiens (France) and Tournai (Belgium) were mostly disappointing aside from their excellent cathedrals, but we are now very happy in Delft, a beautiful town near The Hague in South Holland. We're having such a fantastic time here and I don't think we could have chosen a better place to wind up our European tour. We are here for a full week (Sunday to Sunday) and then we'll spend our last three nights in a modern airport hotel in Amsterdam.

First of all, the unparalleled use of English in the Netherlands makes it feel like we're halfway home already. Absolutely everyone we've met in the Netherlands speaks fully fluent English, something we'd really been looking forward to! There are English books in the bookstores, English channels on TV, and English movies with Dutch subtitles playing at the cinema! Magnificent! We've already seen two movies at our local cinema: The Dark Knight, which was very good, and Indiana Jones 4, which I'm very sad to say was not very good.

But all the English language and American culture doesn't detract from the Dutch culture and the feeling that we are definitely still in a foreign country. The Dutch language is still everywhere and, unlike in a tourist mecca like Rome, English doesn't seem like a concession to foreigners but actually a part of the culture. The English-language books and movies are not here for us, but because the locals understand and enjoy them. And it's not uncommon to hear an all-Dutch conversation sprinkled with English phrases. And of course, many Dutch people speak a couple other languages besides. The Dutch seem to pride themselves on being cosmopolitan, and they are!


We enjoy the Dutch language very much too. One of our favorite words (and snacks) is Appelflappen, a.k.a. apple turnovers.


So we obviously think the Netherlands is a nice place to be, and Delft is the best city we've visited so far. It is beautiful, historic, peaceful, and not overrun by tourists even in July.


Johannes Vermeer, who painted Girl with a Pearl Earring, lived and died in Delft. His gravestone is in the Oude Kerk.


Our hotel (Hotel de Ark) is in a large 1700s house on a brick lane about 10 feet from a canal.

Unfortunately our room does not have air conditioning, and although we haven't been too hot, I have suffered pretty badly from the undying love mosquitoes have for me. The feeling is decidedly not mutual, as I seem to be much more allergic to European mosquitoes than their American counterparts and each bite becomes a welt significantly larger than a quarter.


Canal next to our hotel. It doesn't seem to be mosquito-ridden, but somehow they find me at night.

There's not much room for parking outside, but we were able to park long enough to unload our stuff. Parallel parking canalside poses more risks than usual - a slight miscalculation and we could have been very wet! After unloading David moved the car to the main parking garage, which was sparkling clean and brightly lit. Impressive.

We haven't done too much since we arrived, but it has been really wonderful to relax and just live here for awhile. It's like having a proper vacation after months of aggressive sightseeing! We're getting a few last-minute things arranged for our trip home, I've gotten caught up on some website business, but mostly we just read books, surf the Web (our connection is very fast here), watch movies, and wander around the lovely city. Good times.


The streets of the Old Town are paved in brick, full of bicycles, and lined with all kinds of interesting shops and restaurants. Most of the streets run alongside canals, which are crossed by little arched bridges with white railings.

From our hotel it is a short and very flat walk along the canal and over a bridge to the main square (Markt), which has the historic town hall (Stadhuis) and the New Church (Nieuwe Kerk, built in the 1400s) and is surrounded by restaurants specializing in pannenkoeken and stores selling pretty "Delft Blue" porcelain. And wooden shoes and tulip bulbs, of course.


Stadhuis


Nieuwe Kerk at the other end of the square. William of Orange and many other Dutch royals are buried inside.


Some Delft Blue in a shop window

We have had some delicious food here so far. On the first day we had dinner at a Mexican place on the main square called La Cantina. It wasn't as good as the Mexican in Amsterdam (which we hope to be visiting next week), but still delicious.


I had a highly unusual dish they called a chimichanga: a flour tortilla topped with melted cheese and filled with spicy ground beef, a banana, raisins and walnuts! It was really weird and really good. David had a combination of a taco and enchilada.

We also had a decent Italian dinner outside on the square. But mostly we've been eating at Dutch restaurants, where the menus center around pannenkoeken (pancakes), sandwiches and salads.


The best place for Dutch food we've tried so far is this one, whose outside seating is on a canal boat.


I had a Hawäi Panenkoek, which of course has ham, cheese and pineapple. And butter and kiwi. (Butter shows up in unexpected places over here - they especially like to put it on ham and cheese sandwiches in France. Yuck!) It was fantastic. Dutch pancakes are unlike French crepes or American pancakes. They are very eggy, with not much flour. Very tasty. We returned to this place today and I tried a sweet version of the pancake, with apple slices baked in. Also delish.


On our first visit David had this "Italian Hamburger," which he loved. And at lunch today he tried a Tasty Mexican Sandwich, which was a corn roll filled with thin slices of chicken breast, cheese, guacamole, and figs! Very inventive, this place. They won the title of "Best Sandwich in the Netherlands" in 2008 and many other years.

Some Randomness for Your Sunday

Where to buy excuses in France.


A funny little video and tribute to a former job I didn't like so much as my current one - alpaca grooming! Not our video, unfortunately.

In actual news, we are now in the Netherlands and it is wonderful. More soon.

A Day in Paris

So on Monday we caught the 9:13 AM train from Chartres to Paris, which was incredibly easy since the train station is just down the hill from our hotel. The fare was not cheap at €23 return, but still better than in the UK. The train was clean and mostly empty and the one-hour ride was smooth and fast.


Paris has many train stations; our train arrived at the Gare Montparnesse in the southern part of the city, which is where many of the TGVs (high-speed trains) leave from. As you can see above, their design strikes an odd balance between retro and futuristic. We rode one of these on our honeymoon and David absolutely loved it.

On our way out of the train station, we were thrilled to find a branch of PAUL, the bakery we first discovered in London and love very much. We ordered two croissants and they were still warm. Heavenly. Surprisingly, good croissants have not been universally available in France; most often they are very mediocre. Very few have measured up to those sold at the French market in Oxford or even at Costco! But these were a happy exception and a delicious, if not very healthy, way to start our busy day in the city.

The Metro line goes everywhere in Paris, but we decided to walk. It was windy and actually very cold for July; we even popped into a department store in search of a cheap sweater (unsuccessfully). But it warmed up later and became a beautiful day.



Near the station was the first of many cinemas, and a quick consultation of the schedule showed that many of the movies are shown in the original English (with French subtitles) rather than being dubbed! This has been nearly impossible to find in Germany, Italy or France, but I knew it existed in Paris since I saw a movie on a previous visit and it was such fun. I hoped there might be time for a movie later that evening or the next day; alas, there wasn't. But I will not have such problems finding a movie in English in two weeks! Yay!!



The first main stop was the Museum of the Middle Ages, housed in the small palace used by the bishops of Cluny Abbey when they were in Paris. Sounds right up my alley, yes? It was, and I had a great time. As for David, once he found out there were no torture devices on display inside, he decided to go on ahead. We met at the Notre-Dame Cathedral later and it worked out great.

A sampler of some of the medieval goodness I found inside:








Meanwhile, David was sampling various ethnic foods on some side street and taking some lovely photos of the Notre-Dame from across the river:




As I headed for our meeting point in front of the Notre-Dame at 1:30, I knew it would be crowded with summer tourists, but I was still unprepared for the sheer numbers milling around and posing for pictures. They easily outnumbered the pigeons, which is usually hard to do, and I would say about 75 percent of them were Americans. I also had the privilege of witnessing a girl throwing up in the street alongside the cathedral. Ah, cities.

Once I spotted David in the crowd, we didn't stick around long. Our next stop was the Louvre Museum, which David was interested in revisiting almost as much as me. The walking route was along the Seine River, which was quite lovely as always.


They currently have a great setup down on the banks of the river called the Beaches of Paris, with sunchairs and potted palm trees and cooling misters. Fun stuff.

On the higher level on the left of the above photo, you can see the green boxes of the riverside vendors, which are one of the really wonderful things about Paris. Most sell some usual tourist stuff like magnets and postcards, but they also have wonderfully unique things like rare books, antique magazines, original paintings, vintage prints and such. So much fun to browse. I wanted to buy just about everything, but I bought four magnets instead.

Our route also passed Sainte-Chapelle and we would really like to visit, but the lines were just as horrifying as they were on our honeymoon and we just couldn't do it.



The queues also tend to be very bad at the Louvre, of course, but we had a cunning plan! Most people enter in the center of the courtyard under the pyramid, but prior internet research had revealed that there is another entrance called the Porte des Lions, which is rarely used.



We headed through the gateway, made a couple wrong turns, then put our bags through an X-ray machine and bought our tickets. There was no one in line and in fact we had the entire lobby area entirely to ourselves. Amazing.


Then we were on our way!

The first section we came upon was Africa, Americas and Oceania, so we wandered in there for awhile. It was incredibly interesting, sometimes creepy, and frequently comical!






You may recognize this last fellow; he's from Easter Island.

Then we consulted our museum map and attempted to head for what I really wanted to see - Decorative Arts: Middle Ages - which involved going up another floor and around to another wing of the huge former palace. Along the way, we passed some of the museum's most famous inhabitants, with their attendant hordes.


Mona Lisa (the tiny painting just left of center).



Winged Victory of Samothrace (one of David's favorites)


Also a nice palatial room.

Then, we made it to my Middle Ages section. It was AWESOME. Huge! It went in chronological order as you progressed down the corridor, and geographically from side to side. We spent most of our time with the oldest stuff, mainly from the 10th to 13th centuries. Like most of the exhibits in the Louvre, the collection was beautifully displayed in impeccably clean glass cases, with lots of room to move around them. David even enjoyed himself - he especially likes the ivory stuff - and got some really nice photos for me. What a guy!







I really, really wanted to take this little bird home with me.

About halfway through the collection, we were ready for a break and my stomach was growling (not having been with David for his earlier food explorations). And wouldn't you know it, there was a cafe right next to the Middle Ages collection! It's called Cafe Richelieu and is one of several throughout the museum, but it's the only one with a terrace that overlooks the courtyard and pyramid! I think it is pretty clear by now we had an awfully good time in the Louvre. David had a cold drink and I ordered a pasta salad, which was vinegary and delicious.






Then we went back to "work" in the Middle Ages section awhile longer, until around 5:15 they began to make announcements that the museum would be closing soon. Sad! But it doesn't actually close until 6:00, so we had just enough time to rush over to the other section on the to-do list - Early Christianity and Late Antiquity, somewhere in the "Greek, Roman and Etruscan Antiquities" section.

This was harder to find, but much smaller and more manageable than our previous section. It has some really great stuff and it was friendly to see again, because we had visited this part on our honeymoon. And it was pretty fun to realize that I now have a master's degree in this part of history! Yay!





Then the announcements became more insistent and ropes began to go up, so we had to head for the exit. But on the way, we got to see a few more interesting things in the "Pre-Classical Greece" (somewhere around 3000 BC) section:





Finally, we joined the herd down the escalators and back up some stairs into the light.



Behind the Louvre on the way back to the Notre-Dame is the church of St-Germain-l'Auxerrois, which was the chapel of the Louvre when it was a royal palace. For you pop culture fans, it's also where Eva Longoria and Tony Parker got married. We made a quick stop for a couple snaps.



Then we made a beeline along the Seine back to the Notre-Dame, because I was hoping to get in for some photos of the stained glass windows before it closed at 6:45. We didn't make the deadline, but fortunately they were having a service so I was able to slip in, join the wandering crowds in the side aisles, and listen to some more beautiful singing.





After the service was over and everyone was shooed out of the cathedral, I rejoined David outside to enjoy the west front in the evening sunlight. The crowds had thinned out a bit by then, too.





And finally, it was time to leave the churches and museums and Seine behind, and call it a night.




On the way we passed an outdoor poetry reading in English at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore.

We were absolutely exhausted by this time and it was a long walk back to the train station, but we stopped for a dinner of noodles at a Chinese restaurant, which was cheap, delicious, and really hit the spot.


Then we dragged ourselves the rest of the way to Gare Montparnesse to meet the 9:25 PM train back to Chartres.

The train ride was once again smooth and quiet, and even faster this time! It was not a TGV, but it definitely hit some high speeds - somewhere around 120 mph, we think. It actually became rather alarming at times, rocketing like a runaway train in the dark. But we made it home safe and sound, and I took my tired self to bed pretty much immediately. It was a very, very good day.

And now I am writing from Amiens, our last stop in France. It has a very nice Gothic cathedral, the largest one in France, but is otherwise not an especially pleasant city. Tomorrow we go to Belgium! France has been a wonderful experience, but we've been here for awhile and are excited to be in a new country.