Eliot's Travels

The second Saturday in September is Open Monumenten Dag across Holland. It's the one day a year that certain public buildings are open for visiting and participating museums and historic sites and churches are open for free. The intent is to encourage people's interest in the history and culture of Holland. The website gives a good summary in English http://www.openmonumentendag.nl/paginas/38/english/summary (Go to Home, Zoek, type "Delft" for the Locatie-Gemeente on plaats to see
the Delft monuments open that weekend).

Julie and I biked the boys by Eliot's school and then went to the farthest out monument in Delft: Kruithuis. This arsenal was built in 1660; the two storage towers were completely surrounded by water to minimize the potential for an explosion of gunpowder to burn the town of Delft. The barracks are now home to a Scout camp and can be rented for weekend vacations or family reunions. The guardhouse has been beautifully restored. We enjoyed a lovely drink sitting on the water while Miles took a nap.

We toured inside the Oostport and up its narrow stone spiral stairs from the 1400/1500s. On my own, I got to explore a few houses along Oude Delft. I saw inside two wonderful churches, Sint-Hippolytuskapel and De Génestetkerk. The second was a secret church hidden behind a gate and through a courtyard. It was cool. The first Remonstrant Church was built on the present site in 1639; though this building was largely town down and rebuilt in 1895. The remonstrants established their congregation in Antwerp in 1619 following their expulsion from the Reformed Church in 1618/1619. The church is a classic example of a "hidden church" where there was neither a tower nor church clock.

I also toured the archive house for Delft, displaying some really fun pictures of past and present pictures of Delft's happenings (Sinterklaas, weddings). The Roeivereniging DDS (rowing club of Delft) opened up its greatly restored tower from the 1600s. There, we saw their large boats in a out building under the road and watched some students take off in a 5 or 6 person rowing machine.

posted by Whitney @ 2:26 AM