Nieuwe Church — Attraction in Delft

One star for the lack of organization and severe lack of atrention to any safety measures. In order to reach the top of the tower, you have to climb some steep and narrow steps. In addition, there are hundreds of steps needed to climb the tower. Nevertheless, the managing team decided that the same set of stairs is to be used for both climbing and descending in the same time. Consequently, the climbing requires a lot of patience while touching sweaty people who are coming down (and viceversa). Of course that it is almost impossible for two people coming from opposite directions to walk the stairs in the same time. One of them has to transform himself into a 'wallpaper' in order to allow a little bit of space for the other one to move. This is not the way to do things in such a cathedral. The view from the top is quite beautiful nonetheless. I recommend climbing only to the first exterior level in order to avoid wasting time and avoid getting angry due to the crowded stairs. The other levels are not worth visiting. The cathedral's interior is not really marvelous but is...

Anarchy reigns in this place. The tower is incredibly tall and narrow, but there’s absolutely no control over access. You're allowed in through a turnstile that only limits the number of people inside to 60, but there's no regulation whatsoever regarding who’s going up or down. Since the terraces are also extremely narrow, it ends up overshadowing the visit (which is, in itself, worthwhile) with constant jostling, aborted climbs or descents because someone’s coming from the opposite direction—if you're lucky enough not to get stuck between levels, where there’s barely room for anything except the “pleasure” of feeling someone else’s body heat as you're crushed.

The views are very beautiful, especially overlooking the square, but the experience could be vastly improved either by implementing controlled time slots, or—like in the Belém Tower in Lisbon—using a traffic light system to indicate whose turn it is on the staircase.

As for the church, it didn’t really leave much of an...

This review is focused on the tower of the church and does not concern the church itself which is a very nice place of Dutch history. Getting back to the tower, I would not recommend visiting to people with claustrophobia. The staircase and the corridors are very tight and the staff does not inform you of this before hand. Moreover, too many people are allowed in the tower at once, making the experience even more crowded and unpleasant. The price is ok, but being denied access to the toilet if you only have a tower pass is unacceptable since your hands will get very dirty when climbing the stairs and holding the railing and the steps above you. Overall, the experience is worth it only for the views, but the other unpleasant factors make the visit not a must do around Delft.

As a final note, the toilet situation needs to be solved by the owners, like building an extra toilet at the entrance, or delimiting the access to the toilets in the church by making a corridor for the...