Delft

Three hundred and seventy six steps lead to a tight rail with The Hague and Rotterdam both in sight. The vault below holds forty six members of the royal house and stays closed to visitors.

A pottery going since 1653 where the decoration is still painted by hand. Before glazing the strokes look black, and only firing turns them blue.

The town hall stands at one end and the church tower faces it from the other. A market fills it on Thursday mornings, and on that day the paving disappears.

Full size reproductions gather the work of the painter born in this city. The originals hang in museums abroad, and nowhere else puts them in one room.

The tower stands almost 2m off vertical, which shows even from a distance. Soft ground caused it, and the foundation has since been fixed so it leans no further.

The spot where the Prince of Orange was shot in 1584 is still on the wall beside the stairs. Glass covers the bullet marks, so they cannot be touched.

Tropical and desert houses stand side by side, and the ticket stays cheap because students work here. The bamboo section is outdoors and holds its shape through winter.

A six seat boat works the narrow canals, and everyone stoops beneath each bridge. There is no rowing; an electric motor moves it quietly.

A flour mill on the old rampart line, still grinding and selling downstairs. When the sails turn, the whole timber frame shakes up to the top floor.

Small houses built for the elderly poor stand around a shared inner yard. Residents live here to this day, so voices drop once you pass the gate.

Built around 1400, the only city gate Delft still has. Its twin octagonal towers gained their spires in 1514. Shot from across the canal with the white drawbridge beside it, it turns up on many of the town's postcards.

The technical university library hides under a lawn that slopes like a hill. A cone pokes through the grass and brings light down into the reading room below. Students lounge on the slope, so in good weather the hill fills with people.

The quay across the harbour where Vermeer painted View of Delft around 1660. Most of the gates and roofs in the picture are gone, but the curve of the water is unchanged. The original hangs in the Mauritshuis in The Hague.

Once the cattle market, now a square of cafe terraces under big trees. It draws fewer tourists than the Markt, so locals gather here in the evening. In winter a small skating rink sometimes goes up on the square.

A park of woods and a lake east of town, with walking and cycling paths along the shore. Swimmers use its small sand beach when summer comes. Cycling there from the Markt takes just over 10 minutes, a good break after the canals.

The canal house of the 19th-century painter Paul Tetar van Elven, left untouched since his death. The easel, his copies of old masters and his Delftware sit where they always did. The house is compact enough to see in an hour.

Visitors handle the technical university's research here, with solar race cars and robots built by student teams. Children build bridges and dam water channels. Buses link Delft station with the campus.