Photo Friday: Delft, The Netherlands

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Delft, The Netherlands

This week’s Photo Friday comes from a little town in northern Europe: Delft, the Netherlands!

How many of you guys ever dream about going somewhere you’ve read about, browsed through pictures or even seen in a movie? Have you ever tried to make going to your dream place a reality?

I am a very visual person and once I get an image of an enchanting place in my head, it never leaves. I blame my obsessive personality. I get inspired so easily from movies and books; for example, one time I went to Positano in Italy after seeing Under the Tuscan Sun (though I didn’t find a Marcello, sad) and I traveled around Slovenia after watching the making of feature from the Chronicles of Narnia. Aaaaaaand, who’s a dork?

A little known secret about me, aside from being a medievalist and extreme nutella addict, is that I studied art and art history for a long time. I paint, sketch, doodle and draw whenever I get the chance, and I am a huge museum nut. I can spend hours and hours wandering and oggling around art museums, especially museums with OLD STUFF!

My favorite painter? If you haven’t already guessed from this post title, is Johannes Vermeer, better known as the mastermind behind the poignant painting, The Girl with the Pearl Earring. I just love Dutch art, especially 17th century landscapes and depictions of daily life back in the day, you know, pre-toilets and electricity. Vermeer lived and worked in Delft, a beautiful little town in Holland, picture, canals, windmills, and wooden shoes. Oh, and beautiful blue and white tile pottery.

Delft tiles are world famous, and I snapped this shot in a local gallery of a collection of old, antique pieces with my very first digital camera, a 6 megapixel canon point and shoot back in 2008. Delft was also the setting for the famous book and movie, The Girl with the Pearl Earring. Colin Firth stars as my favorite painter (first Mr. Darcy and now Vermeer? Could I love him even more?), and the film does a great job of capturing the color palette of his work along with the grittiness of 17th century European life.

As I wandered around the beautiful medieval town, admiring the swans in the canals and the cornflower blue skies so typical in Holland, it was easy to imagine Vermeer looking at the same sky too. Delft, The Netherlands is such a quiet, fairytale place and it is definitely worth visiting as a day trip from Amsterdam if you are in the area. And make sure to check out the many galleries and shops that host the traditional blue and white tiles.

Have you ever been to Delft or Holland? Do you love traveling to places you’ve read about? Are you a Vermeer fan too?

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5 Comments on “Photo Friday: Delft, The Netherlands

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  1. We went to Torquay to visit Torquay but also because that’s where Fawlty Towers is set, or so I thought – its actually filmed in Buckinghamshire, no where near the sea.

  2. Glad to see you popped over to The Netherlands, I thoroughly enjoy living here as an expat! Next time you’re over you should visit places like Utrecht, Vlissingen, & ‘s-Hertogenbosch. 🙂 Danica

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