Vermeer You Old Goat!

Walking through New Church in Delft, Netherlands, we were on the lookout for Vermeer’s grave. Our casual haphazard wandering soon turned into a desperate search. We would consult the indecipherable map, interpret what we saw, head there only to be disappointed. What was going on?! The map seemed to have been printed as a reverse mirror image- it also did not quite line up with the layout of the church. It also lacked a marker for William of Orange’s tomb, which is the big draw and main attraction (if you can call it that) of the church. Sure, Vermeer was not very well known, but if his grave was mentioned on the map why was it so damn hard to find?! After two more rounds of the church, reading all the tombstones as we stepped over them, we gave up. Too proud to ask someone, we left and went off to Old Church. At least we had gotten to see William of Orange’s tomb.

Old Church was not nearly as interesting, it lacked décor and fancifulness. Brent pointed out a tombstone with a picture of a goat on it, laughing at the idea of someone being represented by a goat. I took one look at it and swore under my breath: VERMEER! What a sight it must have been: two obvious tourists standing by Vermeer’s grave, one points, the other curses and they both start laughing, one throws her arms up in the air, the other opens up the map. After a careful study of the map we realized it was double-sided. No wonder we had not been given anything when we entered Old Church-we already had the info and map!