Haarlem and Delft

For our last two days in Belgium/Netherlands, we decided to see some of the smaller cities that many people visiting don’t see. There is an empty apartment in Rotterdam (somewhere between Brussels and Amsterdam) so our plan was to spend both days in the Netherlands and stay overnight in Rotterdam so we don’t have to come back to Brussels each night. So we went with mom and Loel to the Rotterdam apartment where we helped the Pankratz (another senior couple in the mission) move out. We then left for Haarlem.

Haarlem is a small town outside of Amsterdam that has a similar feel to it. We spent a couple hours there wandering around and souvenir shopping. Our first site (and only) that we wanted to see was Corrie Ten Boom’s house. It is the house where ‘The Hiding Place’ took place. Corrie Ten Boom was part of a family that hid Jews in her house during the period when the Nazi’s overran the Netherlands. Unfortunately they were eventually discovered so Corrie and her family were sent to concentration camps where everyone but Corrie died.

The happy part is that the Jews she was hiding weren’t found and survived. So touring the house was interesting – especially seeing the actual hiding place. It was a small space behind a wall that could barely fit six people (pictured).


After the tour we got some Gelato and then got in the car and headed towards Delft. We thought that ‘The Hiding Place’ tour was great but the rest of Haarlem was just ok – a smaller not as nice version of Amsterdam.
Delft is another small town in the Netherlands that houses a university and is famous for its Delft blue and white pottery.

We all loved the place. It is pretty small, yet very clean, and has a large main plaza with a pretty grand church in the center. There are tons of little restaurants and pottery shops scattered throughout. Also, there are many canals - but they weren’t like other canals we have seen because they were very green. They had tons of water lilies floating on the surface. It also seemed like there were lots of flowers and swans scattered along the canals.

We spent time looking in different pottery shops which contained real delft pottery and imitation pottery. We weren’t really tempted to buy any of the real stuff as it was pretty outrageously priced. But we are still considering ordering a plate with a windmill and all the eight countries we have visited on this trip.

Mom also found a thicker Netherlands table cloth that she had been trying to find for a while and Emily liked it so much that we got one too.

The best part was having dinner on a boat on the canal. We found a small restaurant right on the canal that had an extension of itself on a boat that was pretty much connected to the dock.


On the boat where numerous tables and hanging lights for people to eat. The food was nothing spectacular (we all got an eight euro schnitzel deal) but they did give us tap water (a rarity here) with ice! It was the first drink Em and I had with ice in over a month. It was really fun talking with mom and Loel on the boat with a slight breeze and not being in any sort of rush to get to another place.