March 20, 2016

Weekend Getaway: Den Haag

Den Haag (The Hague but in Dutch) is where my dream job is located: the International Criminal Court. So, it was about time that I finally visited this city. A friend of mine from Italy and I met in the central train station in town and toured the city together.

After checking into our AirB&B we went to the Mesdag Museum, where the Mesdag Panorama is located!

Just look at all that detail! And we were about 15meters from the painting itself.

Next, we visited the Peace Palace:

Here is the Wish Tree (it is SO full) that is located here:

After some more walking we decided it was time to stop for lunch, Italian lunch. Giel is still practicing his Italian (and is really good) while I am focusing mostly just on Dutch and have lost most of my Italian :(. We walked past this shop and the owner was outside talking to us and was so friendly that we decided to eat there. Here is the owner with one of his regulars in the true Italian way: mid- sentence and using his hands to speak.

Shortly after leaving, I saw this really cute sign:

Next up, het Binnenhof, the Dutch Parliament:

We did not forget about Johannes Vermeer’s “Meisje met de parel”:

One of my old boss’ told me that I just HAD to go to Scheveningen, which is about 10min tram ride from the center in Den Haag, so we went. It was SO windy and cold. But even with it being less than 10C, without even taking the wind into account, there were so many tourists wandering around the beach and pier. It is definitely beautiful but much more touristy than I was expecting.