Directions
Navigation system: Kerkpolderweg, Delft. Take the first left after the football pitch and you will be in the ‘Midden Delfland Kerkpolder’ parking lot. Parking can be very tricky as the sports area gets pretty busy.
Catering
Eendracht horeca: Cafe/restaurant attached to the swimming pool.
Onderons: Party centre and restaurant. I have not researched it, so I do not know if they are opened during daytime.
Offleash area
As I understand it, dogs officially have to be leashed in the entire domain, but everyone I saw walked offleash and, when I asked, only one person had vaguely heard of someone ever being fined a year ago in the domain.
What is so special about it?
In all honesty, not much. Its history perhaps? I was chatting to one of the locals and he was nostalgically looking back to the time when the polder was still a nature area, and not a sports complex. He explained that it got its name from the fact that, before all the development started, you could see the churches of Den Hoorn, Delft and Schipluiden from the middle of the polder. That is where the area got its name.
The Tanthofkade is a centuries-old path running along the waterway that links Rijswijk to Rotterdam. It passes along the Kerkpolder.
Watch out for
You cannot look anywhere without seeing less-than-pictoresque modern landmarks, like a football pitches or huge electricity poles.
The noise pollution not only comes from the nearby A4 motorway, but you also have to contend with the countless sports fields and their supporters and (loud-speaker) commentators . We walked to the unpleasant ambiance of techno music, loudspeaker score announcements and cheering fans. Not my idea of a quiet, relaxing walk.
The area was not exactly really landscaped to be pleasing to the eye, so it is a mixture of overgrown grass and asphalt paths regularly broken by a sports complex or another, and lined by giant telegraphic poles.
Shots
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