Day 64

We started the day with some lunch at BLT, Breakfast Lunch Today. We enjoyed seeing how much of the Dutch menu we could read as we tried to find something that looked interesting with a possibility of knowing what we might be eating.

Cameron landed on a Tuna melt with a side salad and Katie had the Carpaccio BLT Style. Both were delicious.

We needed to walk off that meal so we headed for a park. Somehow we got lost on the way to the park and ended up walking around all the shops in the city center.

The mall is both indoors and outdoors, as in, it is covered, but there are streets that goes through. It is very strange to be inside a mall and need to watch out for cross moped traffic.

Eventually we came upon a park (a different one than we had set out for but it had grass to sit on so it would do the job).

As we sat in the park playing cards, we noticed lots of groups entering the park. Group after group of 10-15 kids with group leaders came in and sat down in the park. They were eating Dominos pizzas (we have seen more Dominos than Starbucks or McDonalds) playing ice breaker games and doing the most (read: trying to impress each other). We eventually figured out that it must be college orientation week. Watching the kids was entertaining. There were all levels of moodiness from excited to over it.

Day 65

It is supposed to be rainy and a little chilly the rest of the week so we got in one last beach day today. We headed out to the same beach where we watched the fireworks. Unfortunately we didn’t really dress for the beach because it is already “chilly” in our opinion (aka high 60s).

After going to the grocery store to get snacks, we found a nice spot near the beach (but not in the sand because of the aforementioned poor choices on clothes).

As we enjoyed our snacks multiple seagulls came over trying to pester us for a bit of food. We kept shooing them away but then they would come back. One particularly conniving bird managed to get the core of a peach from right between Cameron’s feet. The bird was proud of himself until another bird came and snatched it away from him.

We watched the birds, enjoyed the ocean and finished up our game of Wizards from yesterday. It was a fun day on the beach.

Day 66

Today we went to the Gemeente Museum, which is a modern art museum. We took the tram there.

As we are on the Tram an announcement comes on the loud-speaker in Dutch. After the announcement we look at each other to ask, “Did you catch any of that?” (Nope) As we are sitting there wondering what the announcement said, Katie pulled up the directions.

Our train was not on the route that it was supposed to take. The Hague isn’t very big so we weren’t going to be too far off track when we got off at a different stop.

The museum has the largest Mondrian collection in the world as well as works by Kandinsky, Picasso and quite a few others. They also have a Delft exhibit that showcases Dutch Delft pieces and a contemporary artist who is working on 3D printing Delft pottery. We saw lots of interesting pieces.

This piece was suspended animal bodies with a big red button to the side of the carousel. After getting permission from the docent Cam ran back and pressed the button. It turned on the motor and started the thing spinning. What else could a taxidermy carousel be besides fine art?

After our train adventures this morning we decided to walk back from the museum. We passed the Peace Palace and the World Peace Flame.

In Amstelveen (near Amsterdam) we had amazing Indonesian food. We have been wanting to have Indonesian again so when we came across Garoedo we went there for dinner. We had the small Rijsttafel which is basically a sampling of all the dishes. It is not uncommon to have 20-30 different dishes in a Rijsttafel, which means rice table. They literally brought out a whole extra table and placed it next to our table to fit all the food.

After a short pause of not knowing where to start, we dug in! It was so good. We each had our favorites but out of the 10 bowls there was nothing that wasn’t good.

After doing some googling we’re pretty sure that this doesn’t exist in Houston. So possible new life plan is bringing the Rijsttafel to Houston because yum!

Day 67

Today we went to Gouda (yes like the cheese)! In the summer they have a market on Thursdays in the town center. We wanted the full Gouda experience so we headed that way but first the train.

So we finally got an OV-chipcard, which is like a metro pass. The gates at the train station in the Hague are always open even without scanning your ticket. When we scanned our OV-chipcards a message popped up in Dutch. It said either, “Success, go get on your train.” or “Nope, sorry no train for you.” But obviously our Dutch hasn’t gotten much better, so we weren’t sure.

Katie being the optimist guessed the former, whereas Cam presumed the latter but Katie was excited for cheese and Gouda so we decided to press onward.

And that is the story of how we became “train criminals”. We were enjoying the train ride to Gouda, excited at the prospect of the market and ready for a great day. Then the conductor came down the aisle and asked for our tickets. We handed over our OV cards and tried to explain that we weren’t sure if they had checked in because it was in Dutch, etc. The conductor was kind and explained what would happen when we got off the train (pay a fee at the gate).

As he moved on to the people sitting behind us, we heard, “We’re train criminals too. We’re not with them but we have the same story.” The people behind us then got the same speech that we did from the conductor. Luckily we were in a silent compartment so Cam couldn’t gloat too much about being right.

Once we were off the train we headed to the market.

We went to the Gouda Museum while we were in town. It is an art museum and not about cheese at all which was a little confusing with the name being Gouda.

We were enjoying the museum when we came to the door below. Other than the thirteen it was not marked and it was not marked well on the map.

Katie tried the door and it opened. The door led to a steep spiral staircase that we proceeded down. We made the assumption that the door would have been locked if we weren’t suppose to go down here. It led to an area that was used as a torture chamber back in the day. There was black light paint that you could see if you wore the super cool glasses that they provided.

After the museum we walked around a bit more and tried to see as much of Gouda as possible. It’s not all windmills and canals… but there are a lot of them.

For lunch we went to Brownies and Downies. It is a restaurant that supports and hires people with Down syndrome. The food and staff were phenomenal.

We took the train back to the Hague just in time for it to start raining. Rather than walk home in the rain we hung out at the train station hoping that it would pass soon. No such luck, so we eventually got a little damp on the walk home.

Day 68

We’ve seen lots of these and they seem interesting so we snapped a picture.

We didn’t do much today. We walked and started a game of 5000 in the park. When it got too cold/chilly we moved to Mingle Mush.

As we were playing cards, a waiter stopped to ask who was winning. Katie was winning and he responded with, “Good that’s how it should be. Down with the patriarchy!” Possibly the result of the new haircut or we just give off hating the patriarchy vibes.

Mingle Mush has so many options that we could try something new. We went with Lime Leaf and Red Pepper.

There were some vegetables that we didn’t recognize in the drunken noodles but that didn’t stop it from being delicious. The chicken satay was also delectable. We were so content after sharing it for dinner.

As we had been playing cards and eating it had been raining outside. We were hoping that it would stop… again, no such luck.

Day 69

Today the weather cleared up a little. We woke up to beautiful blue skies but our shoes were still damp from yesterday’s downpour.

We went to Escher in the Paleis today. The museum was interesting because it combined details about the Palace that the works were housed in with Escher’s art. Below are some of out favorites from the museum.

After the museum we went for a late lunch at Happy Tosti. Yes those are swings as chairs in the restaurant. Katie was ready to stay here all day.

 

This restaurant was lovely. Anyone visiting the Hague should definitely stop in there for some delicious and cheap eats!

Afterwards we walked in our neighborhood, and Katie remarked that she likes the color of one of the cars. Cam looked closer and was amused that the car was the same color as the line on the street as if the street painters had painted the car. Totally outside his norm, Cam busted out his phone to take the following picture.

To understand what happened next requires a bit of context about the Netherlands.

First, their government apparently goes to extraordinary lengths to bust people for what would seem to be minor infractions. For instance there is a tax for people who have a dog. A few years, back civil servants did a sting where they went into veterinary records to find out who had a dog but was not paying the dog tax. Somebody call Scruff McGruff.

Second bit of context. Most houses in the Netherlands have giant windows in their living rooms that are directly adjacent to the street and they seem to be very anti-curtains.

Back to the story of the blue car. Cam took the picture and we continued on our merry way. A block later, we hear someone behind us saying something. We look back and realize a woman is trying to speak to us, in Dutch. She then says she saw us (through the living room window) taking pictures of her car and she wants to know why.

Caught totally by surprise, Cameron starts trying to explain how he was amused that it was the same color as the street line. This does not make it across the language barrier and her expression is even more confused and concerned. Katie jumps in and says it was just because she liked the color. The woman is visibly relieved, says no problem, and starts walking the two blocks she had chased after us, back to her house.

Day 70

Another day, another museum. Today we went to the Panorama Mesdag. Mesdag was a painter in the 1800s. He painted a lot of beach and naval scenes throughout his career.

Mesdag’s biggest piece is an entire beach panorama that is painted on a 120 meter canvas that is 14 meters tall. The canvas is installed in a rotunda and gives the illusion that you are really on the beach. The pictures below do not do the panorama justice but it was breath-taking.

After the museum we had coffee and walked around the Hague enjoying the nicer weather!

 

 

Netherlands