Delft Trip with Laura

Tour member. Ha

This time, I went to Delft, a city very near to Rotterdam, with Laura. It just took us about 20 miuntes to get to Delft NS station. Delft was a small but nice city. We registered the guilded tour at the infomation desk. At around 12:30, the tour started. I heard a lot of stories about Delft, which I could share with you!

There are a new church (the one in the photo)and old church in Delft. And the body of the Father of the nation, William of Orange, is buried under the new church.How can Netherlands become a independent nation? It all starts with this person.

In the past, the Netherlands was under the rule of Spain, which was very powerful at that time. Its territories covered both Europe and America. Philip, the king of Spain, was a supporter of Catholic church while there were mainly protestants in Netherlands. Hard measures was adopted to suppress the oppositions. Also the Dutch, as a caputred race, was not treated very well. William of Orange then led the independence progress of Holland.

From Wiki:

The city dates from the 13th century. It received its charter in 1246.

The association of the House of Orange with Delft began when William of Orange (Willem van Oranje), nicknamed William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger), took up residence in 1572. William was the leader at the time in the struggle against the Spanish, the Eighty Years' War.

Delft was one of the leading cities of Holland and was equipped with the necessary city walls to serve as a headquarters. When William was shot to death in 1584 by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof, the family's traditional burial place in Breda was in the hands of the Spanish. Therefore, he was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day

There is the place where William of Orange is assasinated. You can still see the bullet holes on the wall.

House of a rich man

Traditional Dutch food

Delft is also famous for its procelain. But I think it is not that special for Chinese as we really get a lot of it! In the past, Delft was one of the six chambers of Dutch East India Comapny (VOC). It was directly connected to North Sea and had trade with many countires, even China. That's why it brought back the procelain skills from China.