Waar? (Where?)

You have four guesses where I went to church today . . .

These were on the station walls when I got off the metro . . .

I know they are a little blurry but they should give you a hint . . .

Okay, so it wasn't in Delft, but it was pretty close.

I don't know why Delfshaven is named what it is but they seem to be really engaged in the name similarity.  The picture below is from the main entrance.  The sign says "Greetings from Delfshaven."  Delfshaven was a seperate town which was incorporated into Rotterdam a couple of hundred years ago and it is now a suburb of the city.

As I was walking through the city, there was something about it that was really different from Rotterdam, but I couldn't figure out what it was at first.  Finally, I figured out that it was two things:

First, I realized that everything smelled like roses.  Every house or every ever house had a rose bush out front.  There were also lots of other plants and things growing all over the place.

This is beside a Lebanese restaurant.  I was getting ready to take this picture and then I realized that I needed to take a couple of steps back--the mer-lady on the other side of the awning was missing a couple of coconut shells.











Second, the other thing that was different is that everything is much narrower.  And smaller.  And older.  I don't know if Delfshaven was just not hit very hard during WWII or if they just built it back the way things used to be but it was very much less modern than Rotterdam.

This alley, for instance, is called "Wide Alley" and it is about 400 years old.

Everything is pretty narrow in fact.  Also, at least in the area where I was, everything was on the water and built up around the canals.  

Notice that these patios and the extra room are just sticking out over the canal.  If the water level rose a couple of feet they would be in an awful lot of trouble.













Some people also put up little sheds on the canal where the stored their bikes and flower pots and random stuff.

Delfshaven also has a large windmill called "De Distilleerketel".  It is actually still a working windmill--they grind flour there.

Delfshaven is really pretty.  It looks like everybody has their own boat.  It is a really pretty walk around with occasional foot bridges across the canal.  A lot of the restaurants also have little piers so that you can sit out over the canal to eat your dinner.