By Usha Akella
Excerpted from the book ‘The Rosary of Latitudes‘:
BEFORE TRAVEL, YOU MIGHT BE EQUIPPED with a plethora of facts and figures of a country gleaned from travel literature and websites, but the thrill of travel is the unexpected and the unknown. And every traveler is bound to return with a different perception of a place. Quirky tidbits are what makes travel novel, and a place is reborn again and again in each traveler’s imagination.
Nothing could prepare me for The Netherlands. Even the visual prompts to alert a visitor they are leaving a particular region boggled me every time. While in Delft, I was enraptured by the play of light through stained glass in “Nieuwe Kerk”; the sight of a new bride in the city square; and the profusion of water lilies in the canals.
The Home of Vermeer
Delft is mostly renowned as the birthplace of Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) and Delftware pottery. It is situated between Rotterdam and The Hague in Zuid Holland (South Holland). The city centre has six rotating cubes with information about Vermeer’s life and his work. Vermeer is the best known artist from the Dutch Golden Age. Vermeer Centurm gives us a glimpse into Vermeer’s world recreating his work setting and social ambience; his paintings are known for his play of light and harmonious perspectives.
Delft: Vintage Holland
The Netherlands’ most recognizable decorative art, Delftware: blue on white ceramic, was first made in imitation of the Chinese pottery imported by the Dutch East Indian Company in the 17th century. Delft pottery almost faded away in the 19th century and was revived gradually. Hand painted vases, houses, jewelry, tea pots, clogs, Christmas ornaments, boxes, tiles, plates, windmills and animal figurines abound. I visited the factories Blue Tulip and De Candelaer to watch the process from simple white ceramic to the painstaking hand-painted artwork.
Delft has the ambience typical of Holland: canals, a central square, the old and new churches (every town seems to have a new and old church), historical buildings, high fashion and leisurely ambience. You get much of the city’s flavor by strolling through the streets and checking out the various curio stores, cafés and ice cream parlors flanking the breadth of the city square. The imposing city hall and the New Church face each other on either ends of the square. Unexpectedly, tucked away in the corner of the square, was an Indian restaurant, India Garden. Museum Het Prinsenhof is the house of William Orange, where he was murdered in 1584.
As it often happens, there is a point in travel when something just charms you or quickens your interest; a little something that makes the inconveniences of travel worthwhile. Alkmaar was our last stop in The Netherlands and was the icing on the cake that topped the visit. A beautiful drive in the Dutch countryside with rows of sleek modern windmills, lolling chestnuts, beeches and firs, grazing cows and horses, harvested fields and bales of hay was idyllic. Traders and carriers demonstrated with a hand clap how cheeses were weighed and traded in front of an ancient weighing house.
Say Cheese
A bevy of men dressed in white with red and blue hats jauntily mimic the rituals of cheese trade with ancient weighing scales. It was convincing theater followed by people amusedly getting weighed in the warehouse. The plaza was surrounded by trendy cafés, a few fashion stores and local artisans and cheese makers. You can buy local cheese in many specialized stalls. It was easy to spend a few hours loitering in the central market place browsing through leather stalls, art, stained glass, delftware, traditional wooden clog, scarves and knick-knacks. The high-end fashion stores are in the lanes opening away from the center.
We often paused to watch performers or artists, sampling cheese or stopping for ice cream and chatting with local artisans. I tasted a cumin cheese that had an unexpected flavor. I was intrigued by a wire artist who makes objects with a single wire achieving his forms through twisting the wire not cutting it. Bikes had overtaken his imagination and an impressive sea of miniature bikes were his main exhibit.
We walked into a bicycle store with mind-boggling bikes out of science fiction, and spotted a scooter painted with roses through a doorway. We found ourselves in the middle of a woman’s dream when we walked down a tiny flight of stairs into a tiny café “PUUR.” Fresh! was the code word. She’d given up a career in retail to start her own place and wanted to keep it small and local. Sunny oranges in cartons, bright sunflowers on the counter and her big smile added a splash of cheer to a menu of sandwiches, salads and smoothies.
There are just so many snapshots: a colorful music caravan, newlyweds at a church entrance, a tired six or seven year old boy on a store’s steps, dark olive water in the canals, art made of logs, delicate gold jewelry, Swarovski crystal store, boots, cobbled streets… perhaps, we might return to see the Beatles Museum. Holland’s colonial past leaves an imprint in its Indonesian population and popular Indonesian restaurants. The evening ended with a sumptuous version of an Indonesian thaali.
Memorable for tulips, windmills, grazing cows, Delftware, high-fashion, extreme lifestyles, bikes, beer, Gouda cheese and parrot green, The Netherlands is sure to incite an appetite for travel. Delft was the final note to our trip, languorous and sweet, it wrapped up the visit with contentment. Unfailingly bemused by the red strikeout of the town’s name, I waited to spot it again as we left the border of the town.
Usha Akella has authored six books of poetry, one chapbook, and scripted/produced two musical dramas.She is the founder of Matwaala and hosts The-POV, a curated interview and conversation forum.
Usha has been published in numerous Literary journals world over, with her poetry translated in many languages.
Read more about this gifted lady here.
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