Noordeinde

"Nord-EYEn-deh" is a mouthful, but we're learning to correctly pronounce the street name where we're living for the next 5 months. When the "makelaar" (realtor) gave us a video tour of the apartment, he told us he was born here and has never left, and that this was the best place to live in all of Delft. Normally I would chalk that up to a sales pitch, but this was after we'd signed the papers, and he said it with so much pride, I was inclined to believe it was his earnest opinion.
And now, only a few days into living here, I'm thinking he may be right.

If you arrive in Delft by train, you'll exit the station and catch a short tram only two stops down to arrive at our street, then less than a minute walk to our door. If you continue on down the road a few blocks, you'll come to "Oude Kerk" (old church) with its 259 ft tall leaning tower. Here you'll turn right, and find endless little shops, eateries, grocers, convenience stores, cafes, coffee houses (and one coffee shop), a few laundromats, a pet shop, the computer store, clothing shops and vintage stores, and on and on. You may even meet a cat (though I am sad to report the city's favorite cat, Simba, passed away not but two days before we arrived). Heading on just a bit further, you'll come to "Nieuwe Kerk" (new church), where all the royals of the country are buried. The tower of Nieuwe Kerk is the second tallest in the country, and you can make the long climb to the top to get a view of the city. Everyone wish me the courage to do so, I'm afraid of heights. But visiting the historic "oude" and "nieuwe" churches is on our list of touristy things to do.

Here at home base, there's construction happening around us as the other units in what was previously a warehouse are being renovated. The makelaar says they'll be finished sometime in December. But construction taking longer than anticipated has got to be a universal constant, right? So I'm not holding my breath.
Or, rather, I am holding my breath. Because the construction dust is getting in everywhere. The former residents had moved out only 10 days prior to our arrival, and already there was a fine layer of dust everywhere. The first order of business became cleaning, both due to the dust, and the cultural standard that the previous tenants clean and leave it nice for the next people. Which they did not. I'm still finding dog hair in places dog hair should not be. We made our first order from bol.com, the country's "amazon equivalent", to get an air purifier, and it's helped a lot.
But the apartment itself? Absolutely lovely. It came pre-furnished, with a large bed, small couch, round kitchen table, and, most importantly, a hot water kettle for making tea.

The filigree on the ceiling has a different scene depicted in each corner of the room. The bird nest over the dining table is my favorite.

The water here? Incredible. Christopher noted he's never heard me say I liked the water anywhere, until here (other than of course where I grew up on Hylo, that is the gold standard). In fact, when we asked the makelaar if the water was potable, he quipped "This is Holland, of course!" This was particularly refreshing after two years of using Brita filters and hard water shampoo to combat the chlorine-heavy water of Vancouver.

The weather is brisk, in the low 40s during the day, overcast with sprinkles here and there. It really just feels like the good ol' PNW we're used to. Everyone is sporting great coats, and we've already been in one menswear shop looking for a better raincoat for Christopher.

Which leads me to the people of Delft. In said menswear shop, the salesperson was of course eager to sell us a high-end coat, but he also took time to talk to us, ask where we were from, about us, and then even give Christopher the information of one of his friends who works in computers and lives on our street!
A woman stopped her bike to point out to me that something had fallen out of my purse, people were quick to help the few times our suitcases fell over, and people have been kind to answer questions we've had. If they start speaking to us in Dutch then hear our reply, they switch to English.

There's a lot to love here, and we're enjoying every minute of it!