I go to a New Years party every year in Toronto at my friend Marc’s place and every year it is an awesome way to see a lot of different people who are all over the world, but usually in town for Christmas. One of those people is Stewart who has been in the Netherlands for a few years doing graduate school. He is located in Delft and at one of those parties told me if I ever found myself in the Netherlands, to make my way to Delft and we would hang out. This was my opportunity to take him up on that offer, so I jumped on a train and headed to Delft.

Upon arriving in Delft, Stewart met me at the train station and our adventure commenced.  Day one was a walk around the streets of Delft, including the central square and various market streets and laneways.  We tried some stroopwafel and sat down for a nice patio lunch and beer at one of Stewarts favorite places.

Apparently the dutch like to fry things, so we had an assortment plate f fried goodies.  All were very good but my love of deep fried cheese curds came out when the deep fried cheese ball was sampled.  It was great food and great company.  

The next logical thing to do in the Netherlands was to go on  biking adventure!  Luckily Stewart had an extra bike for me to borrow and so with that we set off towards the coast on sweet tour through the countryside.  Let me just say that the infrastructure in the Netherlands for bike travel is excellent and it is clear that every road and new development has bikes in mind when it is designed.  We followed a canal for a lot of the way but even when it was time to hit the city streets it was very easy and stress free.

We saw the Parliament building

as well as the International Court of Justice.

We then continued on to the beach where we went for a walk and Stewart explained a bit more about his PHD research since it has to do with protecting the Dutch coast against climate change and weather.  It was interesting to see some pill boxes leftover from the German occupation in the natural dikes that line the coastline.

After our walk along the beach we stopped at one of the many bars with beach front chilling spaces and had a beer.  It was great to relax and enjoy the sun lowering in the sky on the beach in THE NETHERLANDS WITH A UNIVERSITY PAL!!!!! 

As the sun lowered, we decided it was about time to head back and so we jumped on our bikes and headed back towards Delft.

It was a total of 30km there and back which was a pretty solid leisurely ride day!  It was a great way to see the sites of the area!

When we got back to Delft, Stewart pointed out how crooked the bell tower of the church was and so I snapped a photo not expecting to be able to see it in the photo, but you totally can.

Stewart doesn’t eat out very often and asked if it was alright that we cook our own dinner that evening. I had been eating out almost every meal, so getting to cook for once, was really nice.

We went to the grocery store and piked up some sausages, Brussel sprouts and potatoes.  Stewart has a little BBQ that he likes to use during the summer and apparently it was very difficult to find.  Where most North Americans have a BBQ in their back yard, this is not common in the Netherlands.  It was hard to find a small sized grill and the gas to run it was pretty expensive.  He said that the tank itself was like 90 euros and by the time he found that out he had already bought the grill so was invested.  All in all he says it’s worth it and he really enjoys BBQing even if it isn’t as common in the Netherlands.

After dinner we went on a night time stroll through Delft and ended up having a drink at one of the craft beer places.  It was a great day and I am glad Stewart made the invite to me at New Years so I would think to come visit.  We were both pretty tired so after a beer we called it quits and went to sleep.  

In the morning I went for a morning run through the University of Delft campus before heading to the train station towards Rotterdam!

The Civil engineering department building looked pretty industrial and for sure built before the modern era of beautifully designed buildings.

And with that my adventure through Delft was over (I didn’rt want to impose on Stewart too long) and I was headed to Rotterdam.