First stop Delft

I'm back in Hamburg and very happy to be here. Not that Holland wasn't interesting or anything, but being away from Hamburg, just clarified for me how attached I'd become to the city. My time here is also running out very fast and I'm suffering from a mild case of separation anxiety, which I suspect will become more accute the closer it gets to the time when I finally have to leave (sob!).

Well, my adventures in the Netherlands will be related in two installments, which will coincide with the two cities I'd visited there. Thus I start with my time in Delft, but before I get to that let me tell you about the people we (Audrey, Oxana and I) met on our way to Delft. First there was Jeff, the American lawyer, who's experiencing something of a existential crisis since at 50+ he doesn't know what he wants to do career-wise. So, now he's "hiding" out in Utrecht, doing a one-year Masters, which would enable him to teach law in the States. We met him on the stretch from Duisburg to Utrecht. Outside Utrecht the train stopped and we were stuck since there were problems on the tracks outside Utrecht. After a long wait we decided to get off and have Oxana's husband come and fetch (read: rescue) us. Whilst waiting on the train we met Thomas (Dutch) and Chris (American), two snowboarders back from a snowboarding holiday. Audrey also had a snowboard on board since she was going to Austria after Amsterdam. Thomas' bag was more than 2 metres long and very heavy, of course we made jokes about him schlepping a body around instead of snowboarding gear:) The train finally made its way to Utrecht, but we had to wait behind since Vadim (O's hubby) was on his way.

At the train station Aud's and I were so deep in conversation that we hadn't noticed this pixie-like guy (sharp features; pointy hat/beany) staring intently at me. Audrey finally noticed him and asked him what he was doing. He awoke from his trance and said that he was intently listening to what we were saying, trying to figure out where we were from. Of course, as soon as he heard I was from South Africa, I had to say the obligatory Afrikaans sentence(s) so he could see how much he could understand. His name was Falcon (the n is silent - what Dutchman has a French name?) and he came from a "mystical" (our impression from the way he described it and his appearance) village on the other side of a thick forest. However, before we got too involved in the conversation with Falcon, Vadim and Rikke (the Dane) came to rescue us and whisk us off to Delft, where we celebrated Oxana's birthday promptly at 0:00 before going to bed.

The next day we woke up to some serious snow. So after a hearty breakfast we ventured out to explore Delft. Rikke and I were totally enchanted by the place and the snow. We checked out all the touristy spots, which Oxana had pride in pointing out to us. It's amazing how Oxana and Vadim have adopted/adapted to life in Delft, they are very proud of the city although they are not natives. We checked out Vermeer's (Girl with the Pearl Earring) grave and the church where the Dutch monarchs are buried with much pomp and ceremony. The afternoon we rested a little because we were going out to Amsterdam to celebrate Oxana's b'day in a club there. We visited Club Escape on Rembrandtplein (for those who are looking for a good club next time you're in A'dam). The music was absolutely great and we just danced the night away. In between I knocked back some Tequila and checked out the talent, which believe me there wasn't a shortage of. The only drawback was that they were just all too young, despite the variety of tastes that were catered for;-) Tired but satisfied, we returned to Delft, where Vadim only got about 3 hours of sleep before he had to leave for work - poor sod.

In the afternoon Oxana and I ventured out to do some more sightseeing, but we ended up shopping!!! I got myself such great items, which just reinforced the great impression I had of Delft - great historic sights and great shops! That evening Oxana and Vadim had to pack since they were leaving for Russia the next day. They hadn't seen their family since May last year, so they were really excited to get back. I just lounged around and slept while they packed until the early morning hours.

The next morning at the unearthly hour of 6:30 we got up to catch our trains to respectively Düsseldorf and Amsterdam. I put on my airplane eyeflaps and took a nap on the train to A'dam. I felt very proud of myself since it was just a sign of what an experienced traveller I'd become - I wasn't paranoid about missing my stop:)

So, tomorrow's post will have the details of what I did whilst in the Dam.
Enjoy the pics below.