Hello, and Welkom aan Amsterdam! Well, I say Amsterdam, but we are inconveniently located more than an hour from the centre, requiring a bus and a train to get there. I knew this in advance, so opted to do a tour here instead to places I hadn’t visited before. So the tour today I opted to go to the City of Delft and The Hague.

Our tour guide today was Adrian. Crown Princess docked in the coastal town of Ijmuiden. The coastline here is populated with bunkers hailing from World War 2, and the ‘Atlantic Wall’ defences the Germans built to guard against the Allies.

Most of the Dutch coast is below sea level, with the deltas of Rhine, Amstel and Maas rivers heading to the sea. Water level control is therefore vital to prevent flooding. To do this dams and locks were built to enable passage by water using canals and rivers; thus the proximity of the Atlantic/North Sea to cities like Rotterdam and Amsterdam facilitated trade. Rotterdam is the busiest port in Europe with over 100,000 ships annually.

Spain and Portugal had a great influence in Dutch history. However there were issues with them taking too much money back to Spain, as well as forcing the people to be Catholic. In 1648 William of Orange liberated the Netherlands and it became a republic until1795, when Napoleon invaded Netherland; in1806 he appoint Louis to be King. He was actually liked by the Dutch people. He chose Amsterdam as the new capital of the country.

The Portuguese Navigator Vasco de Gama set sail to Asia from the Dutch coastline; he returned with silk and spices from Indonesia and Ceylon, and porcelain from China. Continued trade growth meant building more warehouses; this led to development of canals to provide more banks to build warehouses, and channels to ship goods through.

The Dutch then decided to navigate themselves and followed the Portuguese example by setting sail to Asia themselves with warships and ended up colonising parts of Indonesia, Taiwan and India. The Dutch formed the Dutch East Indies Company which formalised trade from East to West. The Dutch continued exploring noting Australia and Tasmania, which it initially called New Holland, then called it Van Dieman’s Land. They also headed south and colonised parts of South Africa as well as Americas where sugar was the lucrative trade; more valuable than gold in those days!

By 1609 Dutch navigators had mapped the coast of North America looking for a route from west to east, finding an Island in ocean near to a peninsula; they called it New Amsterdam. The British proposed a deal in which the Dutch swapped New Amsterdam for Suriname; the Dutch gained sugar and the British gained New York! Who got the better deal? With the discovery of tobacco as a commodity, the British started a new trade by Henry Hudson forming the Hudson Bay Company.

The population of the Netherlands is about 18 million people; much of the land they live on has been reclaimed from the ocean and lakes. Rural houses tend to be built on stilts because of the often boggy ground. The Ottoman Empire first demonstrated the use of wind for power. This was adopted by the Dutch, to use wind to pump and drain water. Further modifications led it to be used to mill flour. Further modifications saw wind power used to saw wood and grind minerals for paint. The famous painter, Vermeer, lived in the city we were driving to, Delft, and he would have bought his paints at such a production mill. In its heyday, there would have been 12,000 Mills 8,000 for moving water and 4,000 Production Mills. The majority have now gone leaving only about 1100 which are now protected.

Our tour today was to the city of Delft. It is a relatively small canal based University City with a population of 120,000 people. The University has a strong engineering faculty and many of its 12,000 students go on to work in the solar industry, for companies such as Tesla.

We visited the Royal Delft Factory, where we had an intimate tour of the production of this fine hand-painted blue and white porcelain. How dare they produce a ‘Cat statue’; a purchase I just had to make! My wallet, considerably lighter; accompanied me to the centre of the city. Our coached parked on the outskirts of this canal-ringed city; being too big to negotiate the narrow streets in the centre. We walked over the Canal and into the Main Square, Markt.

A walking tour of the old town ensued, followed by some ‘free time’. Two main buildings dominate Markt; the first the 15th Century Nieuwe Kerk, which houses the Royal House of Orange family’s’ tombs. As is customary for historic buildings, there was a fire and this ‘new church’ was built with bricks from other pars of Holland and Belgium. This left the church with two colours of brick. Then a lightening strike destroyed the spire, so more different bricks were used, so the church has three different cookouts of bricks.

Given the age of the ‘new church’; it is hard to believe that there is an ‘old church’. There is, of course, he medieval Oude Kerk, situated beside the canal. This is the burial site of Johannes Vereer. The church was built in the 13th century, but it now has a leaning tower as the old foundations are rotting. Inside the tower there is a large bell, but it is too dangerous to ring it as the vibration might be enough to bring it down. There are works afoot to try to steady and support the structure.

The walking tour returned to Markt; the other main building here is the Stadhuis (‘Town Hall’). All along the edges of Markt were cafes, restaurants, shops selling Delft wares, and a cheese shop. The tour went into the Henri Willig cheese shop for a tasting of various sheep, cow and goat’s cheeses. Who knew that Lavender goes well with goat’s cheese?

Our tour then left Delft, and headed to The Hague, the judicial and diplomatic capital of the Netherlands. It has a population of 1 million people, with many people working in government, courts and embassies. The International Court of Justice is located in The Hague. It hears cases regarding country vs country; for example South Africa has a case against Israel about the Gaza Strip, and Ukraine has a case against Russia about the Donbas region.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the world's first permanent international criminal court, is also located here. It investigates and tries individuals for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. ICC court open for people to witness trials/hearings. Those convicted and awaiting trial (ex Presidents, Heads of Government and Ministers) are incarcerated here in a prison, nicknamed the ‘Orange Hotel’.

Our only stop in The Hague was at the Peace Palace. It was constructed in 1913, so it is ironic that World War I broke out the next year! And then of course, World War II; since 1945 governments have been more focused on Peace. There is an eternal flame that contains stones from every current UN member state.

Following that photo opportunity, it was time to return to Ijmuiden, and back to Crown Princess for the short crossing to Dover, which marks the technical ‘halfway point’ of the voyage, being the end of the second sector of four. Many passengers booked the Sydney/Auckland to ‘London’ (Dover), so were disembarking today to explore Europe before making their own ways home. Similarly, many people were embarking to sail on to New York and/or Sydney/Auckland.