About Rose: I grew up in Singapore, lived in Melbourne but currently call London home. I love gastronomic adventures, especially while travelling. I stated writing at 17 to remember how it all began.
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15 February 2009
sunday; 5.51pm
I've been here about two weeks now and I'm starting to settle in nicely- I've found a particular grocery store to go to, a patisserie near the Fred and work is finally at the office after 2 weeks at the Peace Palace for the Special Commission. I'm making every effort to travel as much as possible when the weekend comes around and this weekend brought me to Delft.
I remember about 3 or 4 winters ago, the Dutch Masters were being exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria. I fell in love with the Impressionists and wondered about visiting the Rijksmuseum one day to see the collection in its entirety. Last weekend, I went to Amsterdam for the day and spent a good 3 hours walking through the museum and loved it immensely. I remember seeing a particular painting by Pieter De Hooch and thought that I had to go to Delft to see the tiles that were painted in his picture.
So today, I went to Delft with Sonia and Ana. There was simply too much to see and decided we'd sit ourselves in a nice cafe and then take our time at the Prinsenhof Museum rather than rush through everything. The museum is a converted convent and that meant that walking through the rooms was an adventure in itself - there were beautiful wooden beams that supported the ceiling while the ceiling itself had faint outlines of angels painted across the wooden slates. There was as much history in the building as in the paintings that hung on the wall.
The thing that struck me most was learning about William of Orange (who led the Duth revolt against the Spanish that led to the Eighty Years' War) through his portraits and other historical paintings. It was more stunning still when I realised that the very stairs which I walked through to get to another part of the gallery was the stairs he was assassinated on. It was very surreal but incredibly amazing all at the same time. The building had so much to it and even a trip to the bathroom brought with it surprises.
I am starting to miss friends and places back home a little less but the thing that keeps me going is where my trips will take me next. Till then.
"It can be a real long road it can be a lonely night when you're on your own and you're running out of light it can be a real long ride when your running out of time" -when the time is right, griffin house
