Hanging in The Hague

The Hague, July 2nd - July 4th, 2009

When my friend Patti and I discussed meeting up in Ireland and The Netherlands, she mentioned wanting to visit The Hague. With which I responed, what's The Hague?

I was ignorant of the existence of the city that houses the World Court. It intrigued me though, and since Patti offered to make the travel arrangements and I'm always up for going to new places, I thought the idea sounded great.

So we headed from Dublin in a short flight to The Motherland, where my ancestors hailed, The Netherlands. Arriving with few incidents and greeted with warm weather, we exchanged some money and got on a bus to head over to our hotel. It didn't take long to have an incident though, as a scooter ran into our bus, and took off--it was the scotter's fault--and we ended up transferring buses.

View of what we saw when we existed the train in The Hague.

Our hotel ended up being a few short tram stops from more action in the city, but after dumping our stuff, Patti and I headed out for some dinner. Immediately it was apparent that this city had flavor--people from what seemed like all corners of the globe were gathered at outdoor restaurants and cafes, dining and laughing and conversing in a varied assortment of languages. We secured a table and settled in, and quickly determined we needed to shift our hotel the next day to where more of the action was.

Lobby outside our first hotel in The Hague before transferring to the second.

We headed the next day to the Gementee Museum, which is quite possibly the coolest, and most enjoyable museum I have ever visited. There was a wide array of exhibits, and Reed and I had an entirely fun time as we share an affinity of taking photographs. I also couldn't imagine a better companion than a 16-year-old who is on the same plane of goofiness as me to see such a place.

Stick 'em up, entreance of the Gemeente Museum, The Hague

RARRRRR!

Reed in the red room

Welcome to the glass house

Dutch girl in the red room

Tree painting in The Hague.

Reed in the dark.

That evening we met up with Patti's longtime friend Rosita who was a Dutch diplomat for years and became our tour guide for the evening. We headed to the boardwalk, and sitting near the ocean, enjoyed ice cream, sangria, and a summer evening in a city I had never heard of a few months before but was now wishing I had more time to explore.

Pretty much this excited every time I have ice cream, especially with sprinkles.

On the same bean bag!

Public toilets to discourage public urination. Brilliant!

Dutch sunset.

Later that evening we headed to a bar closer to the hotel and had some tasty Dutch bar snacks. Very important cultural experience, and extremely delicious.

Awesome.

The next day I walked over to the public library and donated my last copy of Twilight, "Breaking Dawn", before going to visit the World Peace Flame with Reed and Patti. We also saw a group on a bachelor party pub crawl where the groom was dressed as a sumo wrestler, but I sadly missed the photo opp. I did however get a pic with myself and a windmill. The last afternoon in The Hague was spent wandering, tasting some herring it's known for, and enjoying a beautiul Saturday. Soon though, it was time to board the train for Amsterdam, where more adventure awaited.

World Peace Flame

Reed and the Herring Sandwich

Dutch girl, Dutch windmill

The Hague, Street View