Amsterdam/Sri Lanka Adventure Day 4

 Day 4: Exploring the Netherlands

Today we joined a small tour that would take us to The Hague, Delft, and Rodderdam. We chose the small tour instead of a tour bus to make it a little more personal but with that we found that you get squished into a van with 5 people that you don’t know. There were two vans. Our guide was driving our van and a guide in training was driving the other. Our guide had only been in the Netherlands for two years and was originally from China. He speaks four languages. His English was pretty good although we had to listen closely to catch everything he said. In our van we had two tourists from Los Angeles, a couple from New Your City, and a man in his 70’s from Texas that posts to Tik Tok! He said that he would rather be traveling than sitting on his couch getting old…words to live by!

The first stop was The Hague which is about an hour from Amsterdam. The highways here have beautifully maintained roads and weren’t crowded at all. Maybe because it was a Sunday and maybe because it is expensive to own a car . Not only do you pay for the car, you have to then pay road tax and insurance. Big cars cost a lot more so most cars are little. Also gasoline is about 2.5 euros a liter which equates to about $8.00/gal in the US. This is one of the reasons why there are more bikes than people in the Netherlands. Also it is very difficult to get a Dutch drivers license.

Since we were driving south, the farmland is more sandy so it is a good area to grow tulips. North of Amsterdam the soil has more clay so is better for other crops. Unfortunately, we only saw one field of yellow tulips because the other colors have already been harvested. 

Even though Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, The Hague is where the government is. The Parliament is what governs the country but they do have a king and queen - King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima. Our first stop was to Binnehof which is a complex of buildings for the government. The buildings are very ornate and look like a castle.  It is surprising that there was no security whatsoever, maybe because Parliament is currently meeting across the street until part of the complex is renovated. 

Within this complex is the Mauritshuis which is a small museum that houses works by Dutch artists including Vermeer and Rembrandt. At my request, the tour guide gave us 20 minutes(?!) to run in and see two paintings that I wanted to see - Vermeer's Girl With the Pearl Earring and The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius. We did it in record time but I really could have stayed there for a couple of hours!

The tour went around the corner to see the Peace House (well the outside anyway) which now houses the International Court of Justice. The Hague seems to be very quiet compared to Amsterdam but about a half million people live there making it the 3rd largest city in the Netherlands. 

Our next destination was to the hometown of  Johannes Vermeer which is called Delft. Our first stop was to the Royal Delft Museum. This is a working factory which has been making the renowned Delft Blue pottery since 1653. It was interesting to learn the history and see the process and especially to see the giftshop!

Next, we were dropped off in a very old and very quaint square for lunch. We selected a restaurant whose that had tables outside in the square in order to enjoy another fine weather day. However, we are finding that we don’t care for the Dutch cuisine that we have found. Many things are fried like the Bitterbalen which supposedly has  meat in them but it's a mystery to us. Yes their Friets (French fries) are good but not for every meal! The only fish that we can find are fish and chips. But they do have good beer!

The last stop on the tour was to the town of Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands and is Europe’s largest seaport. We parked at Market Hall which is an apartment complex surrounding an indoor market. You don’t see the windows of the apartment until you look up and see their windows in the arch of the ceiling. 

This city has a lot of unique albeit strange architecture. The German bombs destroyed everything in this city except a church, a school and an office building. Fortunately, the town had warning and were able to evacuate so there were few casualties. This is the reason that there are new (20th century) buildings. One architect stated that the reason the buildings are designed so uniquely, is to remind everyone of what Nazi Germany did. I think it is working. 

We had a full day of sightseeing and got back to the heart of Amsterdam around 5:30pm. The weather was so nice that we decided that we needed to take a canal cruise in case the weather was not nice tomorrow. All of the happy hour and dinner cruises were booked so we opted for the generic one hour cruise. We bought 2 mini bottles of wine and brought the happy hour with us.  I’m glad that we did. Even though the “tour” was a taped recording, it was a reminder of all of the canals we hadn’t explored and how many beautiful old houses are packed together in this city.

Rows of yellow tulips

Our tour guide and a random local girl riding her bike. Our tour guide’s son is only 19 months and is already learning how to balance a bike.

Binnehof

Mauritshuis

The Goldfinch

The Girl With the Pearl Earring

Peace Palace

Outside of Binnehof 

Night Watch painting made out of Royal Delft pottery tiles

A potter at work

Stages of pottery process

The square in Delft

This statue in honor of Vermeer

Cheers to Limoncello!

The apartment windows in the ceiling of Market Hall

Outside of Market Hall

The city library

Don trying to figure out the Cube Houses

Inside a cube house listed at $475,000

The kitchen

On the canal tour