Den Haag

First of all: Holland has a serious case of the “Monday’s”

I first noticed this when I needed to top up my phone because it ran out of money in the heat of an emergency and the store where I buy more money didn’t open until 1pm.  And it isn’t like everyone works on Sunday and takes Monday off, Sunday is still a day of rest, shops just say the hell with it on Monday and let people sleep in.  Wednesday is a half day; sometimes Tuesday or Thursday too.

I only have a limited amount of time to finish seeing Holland in the spring as I have planned to (I should have known; “don’t wait ‘til tomorrow, tomorrow might rain”) and so I kicked off the Dutch traveling today with a trip to Den Haag.  Den Haag houses a number of notable attractions including the Dutch capital building (Amsterdam is “the capital” city; I call shenanigans), Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring , and the MC Escher museum, amongst others.  However, we made it to the Escher museum, which was obviously closed from a couple of blocks away and so we made our way towards other such attractions.  No Dice.  All museums listed hours between Tuesday and Sunday, no Monday.  Fortunately there is baseball in Den Haag and I have an excuse to spend another 20 euro on the roundtrip ticket.

As for the rest of the day, I was content to just walk around; Den Haag is everything I expected and wanted Amsterdam to be.  Amsterdam is too touristy.  I know that I have achieved my “become acclimated with the local culture” goal because I have developed opinions based on local events and debate that would impact me if I was actually a resident of Amsterdam.  For one, I keep getting mail about a debate over the pros and cons of having a metro line to Amsterdam Noord (north) that extends all the way to Zuid (south).  YES PLEASE…switching three different buses and trams for hours on end to get to baseball…Second, before I came over, a debate had sparked regarding locals wanting to limit coffeeshop sales (did you know they sell pot in Amsterdam?) to strictly Dutch citizens.  At first glance, why would anyone suggest that? It would kill a thriving and abundant tourist industry.

Please limit coffeeshop sales to Dutch citizens.

I’m not saying the party scene in Amsterdam isn’t fantastic, the weekends…and maybe a weeknight or three…are amazing, but anyone who has ever come back from Amsterdam saying ‘THAT WAS AMAZING’ was only here for a weekend.  They are right, it WAS amazing, but two and a half months in, the fluorescent lights get in the way of all the cool buildings, and you realize that there might be one or two more “men” in the red light district than you may have originally thought and the whole atmosphere overshadows all the culture and history…the scaffolding on the Royal Palace doesn’t help either.

Den Haag was completely unlike that.  There were no fluorescent coffeeshops, no red-lit windows, no tourists (probably because they knew everything was closed) and it was just quiet and attractive and authentic.  The architecture was not as overrun with canals, but still the facades of the houses and such were just as abundant.  First we made a stop off at a school so Ashlee could take care of some work, but after we sat in a park and looked over a map and then went off to find a museum.  Instead we stumbled upon a deer reservation…right next to the central train station.  After we wandered some more and stopped in a few delis we made it over to the royal palace and House of Oranje. 

Next, we walked over to the one museum-esque place that WAS open, the Madurodam, which is a scale model world of all the main attractions in Holland, from the Palace at Dam Square, to the cheese market at Alkmaar.  Along the way, we were frightened by a two-minute-long air raid siren, or at least that’s what it sounded like.  No one stopped and nothing changed, aside from us, we were overcome with confusion as to the noise.  I thought perhaps that it signaled noon, but it was far too obnoxious and lasted for two minutes.  Then it stopped and all was as it had been without consequence or explanation.

The Madurodam was pretty cool and very detailed as far as the buildings, but the landscape and interactivity couldn’t hold a candle to the emergency-responding fire engines and functioning aircraft at the Miniature Wunderland, but still worth the take.  Next we made our way over to the beach…not quite warm enough just yet, but a nice place to grab some lunch and warm enough for some ice cream and at least a walk along the pier.  Hopefully I will be able to get back in the next few weeks for a ballgame and to take in the museums.

Otherwise, the weather here has warmed up significantly, to put it in perspective, Amsterdam weather is about 2-3 weeks ahead of the average New England weather (average meaning not this winter) and so a walk on the beach was not an unpopular venture today.  However, the cold is the result of a storm coming in tomorrow night, but that appears to be the only blemish on an otherwise amazing next week.  This past Saturday was the pinnacle; at about 65 deg F Amsterdam was abuzz.  Following a walk to the hardware store with Daan and a few balcony beers later I ventured into town to meet some baseball friends at the Vondel Park.  The place was a mob unlike any I have seen in Boston.  This was like Boston Common on the first, nice, April Saturday mixed with the esplanade on the fourth of July mixed with a rally where Oprah gives out lifetime-supplies of happiness.  People were in every corner of the park riding bikes, drinking beers, barbequing and just generally lounging.

Most people I was with said it was only a fraction of the crowd to expect on Queensday.