It's Delft pottery, real pieces only

With Derek back in town, the temperature greater than 0 degrees, and cabin fever setting in, it was time for a road trip. So, with Todd and today's great notification system, we headed out for Delft on Sunday which is about a 1/2 hour away. We were excited after having completed our "chores" for the weekend which included getting Derek and Todd full ski attire (I had already purchased mine last week) for our upcoming trip to Austria and Switzerland for skiing and (finally) being able to transfer Derek's parking pass to Brooke's car for parking at the apartment (no more parking 15 minutes away or riding the bike home from the office - I actually can't wait for the week to come to park here at the apartment). So, we decided a day trip to the city of Delft would be alot of fun. It definitely was. After reading about the city on the way there and educating ourselves about the different type of Delft pottery - that which is original and handpainted in the town and that which is made in China, we arrived at the city and visited the town center and the three churches. We found a nice spot in a cafe and were able to enjoy pancakes and fritters for lunch and talk Todd into tasting the Dutch syrup - which tastes nothing like the maple syrup from home. We visited a couple of stores which were open (not all of them because it was Sunday which is why I think the boys picked this day to go) and came upon one which was run by a family who painted the pottery onsite in the store. Particularly a tourist TRAP, but particularly cool, I selected one piece to purchase that had been handpainted in the store by the father of the family. (How could you be in Delft and not buy Delft pottery??). (It is a great little jewerly box which I am going to put next to my bed. ) After touring the town, we then headed onto our next adventure which was go-karting at Race Planet. This was a great indoor multi-level track in which riders raced go-karts that went very fast through a pretty difficult track. We raced 2 times, once by ourselves and once with other people, and had a blast. We were very aggressive drivers and we all tried to get the best lap time and be the first car - this resulted in Derek spinning Todd out and Todd crashing me against the wall. It definitely was a lot of fun, but we all were feeling a little sore when we got out of the car upon our return to Amsterdam.... perhaps we are not as young as we think we are :-) Dinner at a Spanish restaurant completed the trip - a great time with Todd and with Derek back in town. Now, it is back to work.....