It was the sad day of leaving. We had set the alarm for 07:30. I got woken up earlier than this due to some announcements, but turned over and went back to sleep. When our alarm went off, I had a quick shower and got ready. I packed the last odds and ends. When we were both ready, we headed to the buffet for breakfast.
On Koningsdam last year, they had a somewhat limited menu the last morning. On Nieuw Statendam, the breakfast menu that day was the exact same as on any other day. We both had orange juice and coffee. Graham had yoghurt and fruit followed by sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs and bread. I had one last bowl of congee with chicken, egg and soy sauce followed by a pear.
Our time to get off the ship was between 09:15 and 09:30. We could hear them calling luggage tags in the buffet. At 09:30, they were still nowhere near our luggage tag. As the buffet was closing at 09:30, we headed downstairs and found seats near guest services. Once we got there, there were not any announcements for ages. I wondered if we could not hear them there. However, they then called the first group in our colour. Our luggage tag was called about an hour later than expected. Still, we were on no particular timetable and therefore it did not matter. We swiped our key cards one last time and then we headed out into the terminal.
Things in the terminal went swimmingly. I had wondered why we had not cleared immigration at any point during the cruise. We had a letter the evening before explaining that we would do this on arrival in Rotterdam. The line looked to be a decent size, but apart from the immigration counters, they also had a couple of members of the border police with mobile devices helping out. The line moved at lightning speed. At the other side of immigration, there was a tourist information table. I asked the person there which the best way is to get to the main station at Rotterdam. He explained that the metro was about 200 metres away. Our research did not even mention this. We picked up our luggage and headed out of the terminal.
It did not take us long to get to the metro station. I made a tactical error. You could not get to the lift from all the ticket gates, and I ended up having to lumber my suitcase down the stairs. Thankfully it was not too heavy by my standards. Graham had gone to one of the gates from which you could access the lift. When we were both on the platform, we made an interesting discovery. There was a direct metro to The Hague, and this was the next metro due. Our original plan had been to stash our luggage at the left luggage facility at Rotterdam station and then take the train to The Hague. However, we were both in agreement that we were better off taking the metro all the way to The Hague and just take the luggage to the hotel. That is what we ended up doing. Initially the train was underground, but once we got to the suburbs, it went overground and some of the trainline was actually pretty interesting.
When we got to The Hague, the lift from the metro was broken and we ended up lumbering the luggage down the stairs once again. My directions to the hotel suggested to take the tram for one stop. We heeded that advice. Some of the trams went from above the mainline station, but ours left from the front of the station. Once we had worked this out, we had no issue finding this. We did not have to wait long for a tram either. From the stop where we got off, the hotel was not far.
We went to reception, but unsurprisingly, our room was not ready yet. We left our luggage in their luggage room. We asked the person helping us on what the best way was to get to Delft. He suggested that we take the tram and gave us directions to the tram stop. Then we headed off.
The tram journey was pretty interesting and the tram dropped us right in the historical quarter. The tram stop was outside Prinsenhof, which started out as monastery, but changed uses multiple times over the years and is now a museum. We cut through the courtyard. That was when we found out that we were there for the heritage days. Right opposite Prinsenhof is the old church. This is a beautiful gothic church dating back to the year 1246. A number of high-profile people are buried there including the painter, Johannes Vermeer. They also have a rather impressive organ there. I spotted that there were a couple of free organ concerts throughout the day, but the next was not until 15:00.
We moved on and had a wander through the old town and along one of the canals. At some stage, we ended up at the new church. This name is slightly misleading as this dates back to 1396 and is therefore not a great deal newer. This is the burial place of most the Dutch Royal family starting with Wiliam of Orange in 1584. Prior to this, the Dutch royal family was buried in Breda, but this was under Spanish occupation when Wiliam of Orange was assassinated at Prinsenhof in Delft. He has a rather ornate tomb. The rest of the Dutch Royal family are buried in the royal crypt, which is not open to the public. However, the floor above the royal crypt is marked with the names of the royals that are buried underneath in any given spot. There are also interactive displays about key members of the royal family over the years.
While we were there, there was an organ concert at new church and we stayed for this. The organ there is not quite as impressive, but it was still nice. Once the concert was over, we headed out. We checked out the marketplace, and I spotted that a fish and chip shop of all places offered Dutch apple cake with a cup of coffee. This sounded good to us. We stopped for some. Once we had finished our treat, we checked out the town hall, which is not normally open to the public, but it was that day because of the heritage days. We had a look at a couple of rooms, but it was very crowded and we headed out.
Near the town hall was a Royal Delft factory shop. We had wondered about the Royal Delft museum, but this was a fair way out of town, and we decided we would rather concentrate on the town itself. I did however have a look at the shop and got a Royal Delft fridge magnet for myself, and the colleague was looking after my team.
By the time I finished shopping, it was nearly 15:00. Graham asked if I wanted to head back to the old church for the organ concert there. I was up for this. This did require some speedy legwork, but we made it just in time. The sound of that organ was amazing. They also had a very talented young lady playing the recorder. I never would have thought that you could coax such a sweet sound out of a recorder.
After concert, we checked out the canal on the opposite side and discovered a very pretty building. This is the old headquarters for the water board and is one of the oldest stone houses in Delft. This was also open for the public that day, but seeing the line outside, we did not even attempt going inside.
After we had a good wander, we headed back to Prinsenhof. I wanted to get a decent photo of the old church and figured that would be my best bet. I was not wrong. Then we headed back to the main road. I had seen a windmill from the tram and wanted to check this out. It did not take us very long to walk there. To our surprise, this is actually a working windmill and the flour that is produced there is sold in a shop on the ground floor.
After this, we found the closest tram stop and headed back to The Hague. By then, we were ready for some dinner. We found a brewery restaurant that looked good to us. Graham had some fish and ships and a craft beer. I had some schnitzel with bacon, onions and mushrooms with a side of chips and cradler, which is a mix of beer and lemon. Dinner was really nice.
When we had finished dinner, it started to rain. Fortunately, our hotel was very close. We went to the hotel to check in. We were offered late check out, which we accepted. We were also given a drinks voucher. We collected our luggage from the luggage room and took it up to the room. I took a quick photo of the room and then we headed back downstairs to use our drinks voucher. Graham had a craft beer, and I had some sparkling wine.
Once we had our drinks, we headed back to the room. We got ready for bed. Graham was asleep almost straightaway, but I read for some time before I went to sleep as well.
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