Holland - Day 3

We got up pretty early (Carsten was up at 5:30 am), ate breakfast, packed up, and said our goodbyes to our wonderful host, Hillie. Here's a photo of us with Hillie:

Thanks Hillie!

The Huisman group :)

We headed north to the town of Hoogeveen so I could achieve one of my life-long dreams: taking a photo in the town of Hoogeveen. We made it there with no problems, but we had a bit of trouble finding a sign that was good enough to take a photo by. Eventually we found the town hall, and I took my photo there (see below). YAY! We also saw signs for a car wash, which made me think of my Dad (and Grandpa and Uncle) who of course is a Hoogeveen and owns a car wash. Here's my photo: :)

Goal achieved :)

The Town Hall

Hoogeveen car wash!

We left!

 Carsten fell asleep while we were in Hoogeveen, and proceeded to take a 30 min nap which ended up being the only nap of the day - oh well. We headed down to Delft where we spent the afternoon. Here's a photo of our cutie sleeping:

Sleepy buddy

We arrived at Delft around noon, and went directly to the Royal Delft where we got lunch and then had a tour to see how they made the Delft. It was a very pretty building and I think the biggest surprise to me was that the Delft 'masters' train over 10 years, which is a pretty long time to be training. Also another surprise was that the Delft you buy in Orange City is definitely NOT handpainted because it's too cheap. The handpainted Delft is very expensive. We bought their cheaper non-handpainted stuff as a souvenir because hey, we're Dutch :). Here's a few photos of the area where we ate lunch and photos from the tour:

The pretty courtyard inside the Royal Delft where we ate lunch.

Carsten really enjoyed the fountain.

Love this photo. Also, these overalls are too small now. 3t here we come!

The Nightwatch Delft-style. Very impressive really.

Playing inside the tour :).

Yep, he's having fun :).

He stole my headset and then put it on. What a kid :).

 Mom and Dad played with Carsten outside while Andy and I selected the Delftware that we wanted to buy. While Andy was waiting in line to buy it, I chased Carsten. He was pretty crazy at this point since he should have taken another nap... :)

Chase!

We then went to the center of town to see the main square and the two cathedrals (New Church and Old Church). Andy and Bonnie had been here on a choir tour when Andy was in middle school, so I think they enjoyed seeing the area again. The weather had gotten quite cold, which was sad, but it wasn't raining like predicted, so we were grateful. We headed first to New Church and here's a few photos of the New Church and the square with the Town Hall.

The canals in Delft!

New Church

Inside the New Church

William of Orange was buried here in a very elaborate tomb.

Andy and Carsten in front of the Town Hall building.

Cute buildings on the square.

We're in a wooden shoe in Holland!

 We then walked over to the Old Church which was off the square. It was nice and Vermeer was buried in it.

The Old Church. The tower on the left is leaning. No joke :).

Inside the church.

Vermeer.

Yep. Definitely leaning.

Family photo in Delft.

Our little trooper.

We had all had enough sight-seeing for the day and Carsten was definitely past his happy point, although he was still a trooper. So we picked up some sandwiches for supper and headed to our camp site. Yes, I did say camp site. We found a 3 bedroom place to rent that was part of a campground. It was very nice and very close to the beach, which was fun. The only downside was that instead of being 30 min from Delft like we thought, it took us about an hour to reach the site because there was major construction on what seemed like the only road to the camp site. However, after many detours included being stuck at a drawbridge while a boat went by, we finally made it :). What a great day!