DELFT visit and Akkrum too

On Easter Monday 9th April 2012 we flew to Amsterdam from Luton on Easyjet and took a train to Akkrum to visit my sister in Friesland. Our eventual destination was Delft as above.

After a 2.5 hour train journey through pouring rain we arrived at Akkrum and were met by my younger- well of the two that is, she's a bit older than me- sister very wet standing at the platform! We went exploring and lots of chatting and a lovely lunch and then the girls were soon messing about...

Then it was also FAMILY PHOTO time!!! Voila.

Yep sis is tallest and Miss E is taller than her mum these days... Miss Y still has some catching up to do.

Better sitting down, isn't it?

And then of course it all got very silly.

It was a long and crowded journey back on the train to Schiphol and then a taxi to Delft...

Fuzzy pictures due to poor light and tiredness? The train was so crowded they were telling people NOT to board this one and we sat in the passage way outside the main carriages for most of the way. It was South of Hilversum before we got a comfy seat.

Next morning this was breakfast in our hotel at # 3 Breestraat: a glorious view of a canal with many busy cyclists pedalling past the window and over the bridge.

There ! A cyclist as well as the bread delivery van. Polder Broodjes.

View from our bedroom.Looking to the right

And looking to the left. The OUDE DELFT is the road and the canal name.

On the main market square we spotted a new cheese shop.

After enjoying our'' broodje haring met uitjes'' at the fishmonger on the corner as well as some delicious smoked salmon we rounded off our lunch with POFFERTJES!

These are small puffy pancakes for the uninitiated English and other readers.

This photo also shows the PIET VONK cycle shop in the background where we bought my orange bicycle in 2008. Alas it was closed and Miss Y had wanted to buy a bell and some other accessories for her English bike.

Happily waiting you see? Having a lovely relaxing time.

Yep I was there too.

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm Miss E can't wait.

Here they are in all gloriousness, don't they make your mouth water?

It was actually quite a nice day, not warm but with some sunny spells, which don't seem to show.

I went for a long walk to an area by the Delft Zuid station.... 2 hours of walking to work off the poffertjes.

Here's Miss E at the window of our bedroom. I called and we posed this one.

View along the OUDE DELFT.

We had dinner in a restaurant on the market square and it was so delicious we ate it before photographing it. My steak with forest fruits and red wine gravy was delicious and came with herbed and seemingly mildly curried balls of mash? The girls had KING burgers which were huge and delicious, much beef, bacon, cheese and salad was included, not to mention the thick cut chips. Then Miss Y had this chocolate cheesecake desert which came with raspberry custard sauce. Only it wasn't really a chocolate cheesecake, it was ordinary cheesecake with a solid dark bitter chocolate ''hat'' on it. Oh and the obligatory raspberry coulis of course...

That ended our Tuesday in town, we then had a terrific giggly time back at the hotel in our shared room. The only sad point in the day was to find that my beloved wool shop on the Brabantse Turfmarkt had GONE. I still have much yarn from there in my attic.

I did find some crochet magazines and purchased the three I quite liked. More of this later.

Wednesday was our ADVENTURE day where we were going to be travelling for most of the day to go see paintings by Ton Schulten in OOTMARSUM.