December 23 Wow, Santa continues to leave nice little surprises in our stocking again each evening! Last night he left not one, but two pairs of tiny Dutch shoes made of ceramic. They will look darling hanging on a Christmas tree.
Today was another fun day! Our options this morning were a tour of the Delft factory or a food tasting tour of Rotterdam. We chose the former, so after a hot breakfast of blueberry pancakes and a veggie omelet, we boarded the bus for a ride to the city of Delft, home of the famous Royal Delft Pottery, where Tauck had arranged a factory tour for us. We were told a little about the history of Delft which originated around 1600. We saw examples of early pieces and learned how its ingredients have been changed over time to prevent easy breakage. Our guide then walked us through the process of how Delft is made today. It is no longer made of porcelain, which uses more expensive ingredients, and is rarely used today except for occasional special orders like place settings made for the monarchy of The Netherlands.
After the tour, we were each given a chance to try our hand at painting a tile. We were shown how to use the brushes and offered some patterns to choose from, or we could create our own. I think the whole exercise was designed to prove to us just how difficult it is. ha! Ronnie chose to do the "Girl With the Pearl Earring" and did a remarkable job on his, especially using the brushes we had to work with!
After our attempt at painting pottery, we were served a lunch of soup, quiche, sandwiches and fruit. And of course we were allowed some time to shop in their gift shop.
Mid-afternoon, we set sail for Antwerp, Belgium. In the afternoon, the boat hosted a Belgian Beer Tasting which I wasn't interested in so I took advantage of that and took an afternoon nap. I'm still trying to get my days and nights straightened out! We joined 2 other couples for dinner, after which we were divided into teams for a Christmas trivia challenge. The questions were quite difficult. We maybe did a little better than average but unfortunately we didn't win. Some guests stayed for Christmas karaoke but we decided to call it a night.
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welcome to Royal Delft
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factory is closed for Christmas except for our tour
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examples of early pieces
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| tile painting based on "The Rifleman's Meal" by Bartholomeus van der Helst (1648) |
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ready for the kiln
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observing one of 13 artists at work
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using chalk to stamp the pattern
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trying our hand at painting our tiles
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Ronnie's tile
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Good job, Ronnie!
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From Barb: what a wonderful trip! Ronnie's tile is beautiful! I would be drawing stick figures! We spent a week in the Netherlands in May of 1999, and 5 days in Munich. I was working, but Greg came with me. He rode all over Utrecht and Amsterdam on a bike. And we rode the trains down to Delft. In Utrecht we went to a reform church service and though we did not speak Dutch, we knew the scriptures. The people sitting next to us spoke English and asked if we were believers. We told them we were and were Baptists, and he invited us to take communion with them. We stood in a circle under the dome and passed a loaf of bread and a huge goblet of wine. Then we said the Lord's Prayer and sang a song. No one some until we were outside. It was one of our best impromptu church services ever. I love Holland.
ReplyDeleteWhat a special memory! I would definitely enjoy going again - next time in the Spring so we can ride bikes and see the tulips. However, riding bikes on the cobblestone might make for a rough ride!
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