Netherlands/Belgium Bike Tour Day 5: Delft
Posted by Cassie, November 10th, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Delft is a really neat small city (population 100,000). It feels like a mini-Amsterdam with neat, old buildings along canals, minus the chaos of Amsterdam. When you ride your bike in the Netherlands, you feel like you are royalty. Delft had a guarded bike parking area! We left our bikes there, and we were free to wander around Delft without worrying about the bikes.
Submerged bike in canal
The highlight of our day was climbing the tower of the Niewe Kerk (New Church). The tower is 108.75 meters tall and 356 steps to climb to the top. The tower is the second highest church tower in the Netherlands after the church tower in Utrecht. We were able to go to the top of the tower by ourselves without a guide, which would have never been possible in the US. The climb to the top was up a narrow, steep, winding staircase. It was the same staircase for going up and down, and there was not much room to pass people coming from the other direction. They allow 60 people to climb the tower at the same time, which seems unimaginable in such tight quarters. We only passed two couples on the way up the tower, and it was a tight squeeze. The view from the top of the tower was amazing! You could see the big cities of Den Haag and Rotterdam. The top of the tower was a little scary because there was only a low railing preventing you from going over the edge, and it was a long way to the bottom of the tower.
Niewe Kerk
View from tower of Niewe Kerk with view of Oude Kerk
Looking straight down from Niewe Kerk tower - it's a long way down!
View from tower of Niewe Kerk looking across the main square to the Stadhuis
The Niewe Kerk is a Protestant church, so it is plainly decorated inside. It used to be Catholic church, but it was stripped of all its decorations during the Reformation. The church is also the burial site for most of the royal family, including William of Orange. During the Eighty Years War against the Spanish, William of Orange set up his residence in defensible Delft, but he was assassinated in 1584. Since the royal family’s traditional burial place was overtaken by the Spanish at that time, William of Orange was buried in Delft instead.
Mausoleum for William of Orange in Niewe Kerk
Delft has had a couple serious disasters that damaged both the Niewe Kerk and the Oude Kerk. First, a huge fire wiped out most of the city. It is believed that lightning struck the tower of Niewe Kerk, and then the fire spread to the rest of the city. Once they had rebuilt the church and replaced all the stain glass windows, there was a huge gun powder explosion in 1654 that blew out all the stained glass windows and damaged both churches. As a result, some parts of the church are relatively new. The stained glass windows were not replaced until the 1900s.
You cannot climb the tower of the Oude Kerk because it is leaning almost two meters off center! If you view the Oude Kerk from one of the bridges over a canal, it really looks like the church tower could topple over at any time. The tower has a big bell in it, but they only ring it on special occasions because the vibrations from ringing the bell could cause damage to the tower.
Leaning tower of Oude Kerk
Our only disappointment was visiting the Royal Delftware factory. Delft is known for their beautiful blue-painted pottery, so we wanted to see it made. However, it was really expensive to tour the factory, and while we were there, nothing was going on. It was Friday afternoon, and it looked like everyone had already gone home for the day. The big tour buses were parked outside the factory, so we learned a lesson that places with the big tour bus crowds should be avoided unless it is somewhere that we really want to visit.
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