jen

Not a question, but an offer to help:<BR>The official Delft tourist office has gone bankrupt and closed its doors on Dec. 31, 2002, after the city refused to bail out its questionable accounting practices. While the city council debates on the new kind of tourist information office it envisions, visitors to Delft are temporarily without a tourist office for help or information. The tourist office has also disabled their website: a low blow!<BR><BR>If you need information about Delft, the Netherlands, please let me know at the e-mnail address above and I will try to answer your questions. I hate to see tourists &amp; travellers 'left out in the cold' because of a bureaucratic tangle! You can also try another general website on Delft: <BR>www.delfttourisme.nl<BR><BR>Many of us in Delft are convinced that the reorganization will eventually result in a much more historically-informed, friendly and customer-minded tourist information center...I'll keep you posted!

xxx

Thanks for the thoughtful offer!

djd

I appreciate your offer as well. We are planning on returning to Delft in April and are really looking forward to it.<BR><BR>The last time we were there, last summer, we loved the town but hated the tourist office (very cranky, and they kept people waiting a very looooooong time). So forgive me for feeling a degree of perverse pleasure that they were shut down. Whatever new organization takes over, I hope that they don't use the old tourist office as their operations model. Ick.<BR><BR>Your web page did not work for me. Is this the right address?<BR><BR>www.delfttoerisme.nl/indexeng.html<BR><BR>Again, thanks for letting us know; I will be in touch!

jen

djd, you are right...I can't believe I spelled it wrong! It's<BR>www.delfttoerisme.nl (and then click on the British-looking flag) or<BR>www.delfttoerisme.nl/indexeng.html<BR>The one hotel that is not part of the hotel booking network on that website is the Museum Hotel near the Princenhof; it's a charming 4-star Best Western hotel. Many of the other hotels are little gems. Herberg de Emauspoort is right next to a great bakery and even has two old-fashioned gypsy caravans in the inside courtyard for rent. <BR>On Jan. 17 at 4:30 pm there will be a grand opening of a new website, 'Digital Vermeer House': an art historian working with the geophysical sciences department of the Delft University of Technology has developed a 'walk-through' model of Vermeer's house featuring over 600 artifacts connected with painting, daily life, and Delft in Vermeer's time. The opening is in the Maria van Jesse Church, just off the Market Square, where Vermeer's house used to be. The website will be shown on a huge video screen, and there will also be a performance of music by the 17th century Delft composer Dirck Scholl (I hadn't heard of him either), an art history lecture in Dutch, and a glass of wine (in honor of the Vermeer painting of the same name, in Vienna, alas). There are a few other websites about Vermeer's Delft by this same digital team: www.xs4all.nl/~kalden

jenviolin

Good news! The Delft Tourist Information Office is now open and is located NOT on the Market Square, as your guidebooks will tell you, but on the Hippolytusbuurt, just around the corner from City Hall, between the fish market and the post office, in the middle of the Thursday flower market and the Saturday antique/flea market.
It's brand new, very clean, and the staff is very eager to help tourists!