A Royal time in Den Hague

From the actual capital Amsterdam to the political capital Den Hague, all of 60km apart. Have I mentioned before that this is a small country? Which is great, very handy. And since the fuel prices here are sky high, it's economic, too! We are still on our first tank of gas! Thank goodness, with the price per liter averaging 1,45€!

When we got here, we parked in a residential street, close to all the embassies which are present here, in the political capital of Holland. The Royal family also has a seat here, of course. 

But much more interesting to us than any ministers or royalties was the Escher museum. Can’t get enough of this guy. And there are three stories of his work! Love it!

M.C. Escher was the first Hipster! Oh well, we all make mistakes!

                                                               Look closely!

Not Escher, of course, but also interesting

It's all made of folded paper!

                                                                                                

Old bibles, in fact

Due to their colonial history, Holland has a very strong bind to Indonesia, which accounts for all the great Indonesian restaurants and many street names, such as Javastraat, Balistraat and Lombokstraat. So when in Den Hague, do as the locals do and go have dinner in an Indonesian restaurant. I have absolutely no idea what was on that plate, but it was jummy!

This morning we had the first bitter moment of our trip. I guess after a month exactly, that’s not too bad. But still. When she unlocked the bike, my human noticed that the little pouch, which was strapped to the frame, was gone. Including the little bike computer, which she, unfortunately, had left inside. Which doesn’t do anything for you without the corresponding magnet on the spike, which was still there. After unlocking it anyway, she gripped for the bullhorns, and - they were gone, too! WTF? Well, I guess we should be lucky that we have a very sturdy lock, otherwise the whole bike would probably have been gone.

So, without those things, she rode into town, to check out downtown with it’s very interesting mix of modern architecture and very old buildings, blending together just so. 

All of a sudden, she ran into a road block in front of the Royal Palace, which is right in town center. There were police on horseback and on motorcycles, a couple of carriages, and a whole brass band in dress uniform in the courtyard.

After about 15 minutes a couple, which, after looking at some photos, looked very much like the King and Queen to me, stepped out of the house, climbed into two seperate carriages, waved as they drove past, and were gone. The band and soldiers still stood to attention, though, so the small crowd waited. 

Some ten minutes later, the whole entourage came back. This time, an African couple in very festive clothes got out of the coaches, entered the courtyard, were given a brief musical welcome, and disappeared into the palace. A police officer said, it was the new ambassador from Ghana. So, if it really was the King who left just before this new ambassador came in, I donˋt really know. Wouldn’t make much sense, honestly, but hey, they are Royals, they don’t have to make sense!

And while we are on a trip into the past, more explicit WWII, we also had a look at the “Oranjehotel”. A name quite misleading, considering its actual purpose as a prison for political enemies of the German regime. Anyone who was deemed a foe could end up here, usually without a trial. From an 80-year-old man to a 5-year-old girl. Some spent only a short time here before getting sent of to a fate even worse, others were incarcerated for years and others again found their death before a shooting squad.  

A cell on death row

Scratched into a wall in a cell on death row. What did you complain about last?

To cheer us up a bit after this history lesson, we drove to the beach. I expected, well, a beach, some huts, maybe, an ice cream parlour. You know, after all it’s a beach in the Netherlands, not Miami. No, it’s not? Well, think again! This acutally blew my mind! There is a Ferris wheel, bungee jumping, one bar and restaurant next to the other. All that’s missing are Pam and David, splashing through the surf in tight little bathing suits.

Instead, you have chubby little kids trying to surf. Not as pretty, but also quite entertaining!

                       Carmelo is making new friends

Hoeck of Holland is a port from where you can take a ferry across to England. We were hoping against hope to get one of the very few overnight spots along the canal front, where you can watch the big ferries and container ships go out. And… we didn’t. But by now the weather was so bad, you could hardly see as far as the middle of the canal anyway. It was already turning bad when we left Den Hague.

So we drove on towards Delft. We had sussed out a nice campground there, situated in the countryside with their own herd of cows, a few dozen cats, some goats and chickens. Luckily, they had a spot for us, at least for tonight. We’ll have to see about tomorrow tomorrow. From here, Delft and Rotterdam are only a stone’s throw away, so it’s a good base to explore those two cities in the next couple of days.