Tuesday September 2, 2025
Hi Gang! We woke up in another country today! We are docked in Rotterdam in The Netherlands. Sound familiar?, we were here a few months ago! Rotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam. Since we were here recently we chose to do a day trip to two other nearby cities, Delft and The Hague that we had not been to before.
Delft is famous for its blue pottery among other things (like who knew it’s considered the birthplace of microbiology??). It also had an association with the House of Orange when William of Orange lived there and was subsequently shot and killed there they buried him in the Delft New Church. Until this day, any House of Orange leader that dies is buried in that church.
The Delft blue pottery ceramic products were styled after the imported Chinese porcelain of the 17th century. The city had an early start in this area since it was a home port of the Dutch East India Company. (Wonder if they had tariffs back then?? Lol).
We first did a tour of the Delft pottery factory then did a walking tour with our guide and had free time on our own. We LOVED Delft! It was as pretty as Amsterdam with all its canals but had way less people.
The Hague on the other hand is more of a government city. It has the seat of the Cabinet, the States General, the Supreme Court and the Council of State for the Netherlands. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima live here and it is also home to many global international law and arbitration firms. It has the International Court of Justice, the International criminal Court as well as lots of embassies. Feels like Washington DC!
We did a panoramic tour of the city and jumped off the bus at a few places to snap some pics. It is on the water so it had a beach area with a Ferris wheel and a tall bungee jumping place. No we did not bungee jump! It also had this beautiful building called the Pease Palace.
After our all day tour we chilled and got ready for dinner. I’ll do another update later tonight. Happy Tuesday to all!
The Wandering Italian 