Today I performed a near impossible feat – I found a parking spot, in downtown Amsterdam, for our huge vehicle. After this, everything else is gravy. More on that tomorrow.

Today, we spent the day in Delft, Netherlands – famous for the pottery and Vermeer. Both were in abundance there.

The town isn’t very large, and while it does have some tourist element, it is fairly low key and quite appealing to us. Brenda found a wealth of shops and vendors all selling unique products that we couldn’t proceed without. Even the kids walked away with Delft cows, windmills, turtles & the like. Brenda found two paintings and an old coffee grind some 60 years old.

Brenda’s note:  I think one of my very favorite days was the first day we spent in the Netherlands (Holland.) We stopped for lunch and a wander-round in Delft, most famous for that white and blue pottery. I went absolutely nuts and spent close to $400 on paintings (two antiques), an antique coffee grinder (which I will nail to the wall at home and force Adam to use instead of his fancy electric grinder), and a hand-painted trivet tile. I don’t know exactly how I’ll get all those fragile items home, but where there’s a will there is a way.

The only downside of the afternoon was that Josie managed to lock herself into the bathroom at the restaurant where we ate lunch.  It’s an old converted house, with the bathroom (just one) at the top of the steepest and most rickety staircase I’ve ever seen.  We sent her up alone because there was only one teeny tiny potty (no room for two in the bathroom) and the stairs were likewise only suited for one human body at a time.  Anyway, she locked the door — and then couldn’t figure out the ancient mechanism that unlocked it.  We were all sitting downstairs and outside, so didn’t hear her banging and crying.  Just at the point we were starting to think maybe someone should go see what was taking Josie so long, she came outside with her face all streaky and said, “I was locked in!  That man who doesn’t speak English had to let me out with a knife!”  This is now known to Josie as the very worst place on the whole trip.  Delft — the place where the bathrooms are not to be trusted.

Antique “Koffie” grinder, hand-painted Delft ceramic.

Hand-painted ceramic trivet, by De Blauwe Tulp

Antique painting of chickens, found in street vendor stall

Scene of Delft, painted by Stevensz — he died sometime around 1990, this painting was done probably in the 1960s.

We had lunch there and spent most of the afternoon wandering along canals and down charming alleys.

The weather today was just perfect – almost 80 degrees. The drive through the Netherlands was fun – lots of green farms, windmills and all the other items you would expect here.  It really does live up to expectations.

The car is behaving marvelously and today we experienced the kind of drive, stops, food and fun that we had dreamed about during the planning of this trip.

Shop where we bought the coffee grinder. Those things hanging on the rack are old strap-on ice skates.