Parting Shots

The national emblem of The Netherlands ought to be the bicycle. 

The Netherlands is the most bicycle-riding nation in the world.  Most of this ubiquitous universal bicycling is done aboard the iconic Dutch two-wheeler known as omafiets ("grannybike") or staadfiets ("city bike"). 

An omafiets has a curb weight of about 45 lbs. because it's built for strength, not for speed.   Strength is more important when you're carrying two bags of groceries home from the market, or transporting your child to school.  Generally, an omafiet has has three gears, or none, and a simple coaster brake. You sit straight upright with your left hand on the bell.

I named my old rusty, bald-tired, black/over-orange spray-painted omafiet (it came with our apartment), "Wilemina."

presenting "Wilemina"

Outdoor bicycle parking lot in Den Haag. The Centrum train station in Den Haag has a multistory bicycle lot.

Walking Around Historic Hague

At the Museum De Gevangenpoort (Prison Gate Museum) you can see relics of medieval justice in action. It's the former prison of the Court of Holland and it sports a unique collection of punishment and torture (enhanced interrogation) instruments.  You can visit the Jailer's Quarters, the labyrinthine Cell Complex, the Interrogation Room and the Judge's Chambers.  Linnea suggested we join the Halloween Night tour, but I demurred.

Aristocrat, statesmen, peacemaker and polymath Johan De Witt, de facto head of the Dutch Republic from around 1650 until shortly before his spectacular death in 1672, was imprisoned here.

De Witt brought the First Anglo-Dutch War to a peaceful end by making a secret deal with Oliver Cromwell to never allow the son of the Dutch regent Willem II (1626 – 650) - the future Willam III - to be named "Stadholder", or de fact head of the Dutch Republic.  Reason being - that baby Willem III (1650-1722) was the grandson (on his mother's side) of the same Stuart King who Oliver Cromwell had beheaded, Charles I, and thus young Willem III was a potential claimant to the English throne.

Long story short, De Witt's agreement was discovered by the royals and he was imprisoned for treason along with his brother Cornelis (despite the fact Cornelis was a national naval hero), both were tortur... enhanced  interrogated and ordered to be banished.  But the hapless brothers were grabbed by an ungrateful lynch mob and dismembered.  Bits of their bodies were sold off as souvenirs, and at the nearby Haags Historisch Museum you can view the salt-cured preserved tongue of Johan de Witt and a toe of his brother Cornelis.  No, really.

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The Binnenhoff

 The Binnenhoff (Dutch for "Inner Court") has been the meeting place of the Dutch Parliment since 1446.  It also contains an office for royalty, in the current incarnation, Queen Beatrix, and the Ridderzaal (Knights Hall), dating from 1250.

The Ridderzaal

 

gold-plated dogs puking water?  

Last time we visited the Binnenhoff there was something big going on.  

The place was filled with black sedans, police, palace guards and men in dark suits.

There were no visitor restrictions, however.

Frederik Hendriklaan - "de Fred"

Frederik Hendriklaan street, known as 'The Fred' to locals, has some sort of shopping for every taste. Or you can engage in people-watching from a sidewalk cafe along this old European tree-lined boulevard. Or both.

Are you looking for an enjoyable day shopping on the most attractive lane in The Hague? Then welcome to The Fred. I count myself fortunate to live a mere two blocks away.

It's the local place for exclusive brands. But it also has more than it's share of every-day shopping spots.  Alongside the upper-end boutiques are discount shops.  I love to shop for daily groceries and pick through the fresh produce cart, check out the flower stands, relax with a cappucino and pastry, then finish up at the Albert Hijn market - a sort of European Whole Foods/Trader Joe's - before riding my bicycle home to prepare dinner for Linnea. 

The best lemon meringue tort in The Hague can be had at the Kicking Horse Cafe, located inside Paagman's bookstore on The Fred. Be warned that tables get hard to find when it's raining and cold outside. Fortunately, there's a huge selection of foreign-language books and magazines to help relieve the wait.

"The Fred"

The #17 tram runs down The Fred.

 Paagman's bookstore is a huge business, occupying five adjacent buildings on The Fred.

 The Kicking Horse Cafe - inside Paagman's

 This is Europe, so of course your best friend is welcome to join you for lunch.

 

I learned the difference between younger and older Gouda cheese 

and now Linnea is thoroughly hooked on the 4-year stuff.

...and a few doors down is a wonderful pastry shop.

We were waiting for the tram one morning, and a horse-drawn funeral procession passed through The Fred. 

We never did discover who had died, but old-fashioned processions like this are prohibitively expensive and so are normally used for wealthy aristocrats or royalty.

 FINIS.

 

Mijn vrouw Linnea wandelen in Delft

Gouda - It's More Than Cheese

And it's correctly prounounced "How-dah" with the H sounding like that "phlem-H" in Hanakkua.  Gouda is a wonderful medieval town about a half hour from The Hague.  It seems to have three major things to see (besides the cheese-weighing festival held ever 28 June through 20 September);
(1)  Den Waag (the weighing-house), (2) Gouda Stadhuis (the city hall) and (3) Den Mollen (the windmill).

First, the most impressive of the three - the Staadhuis.  It's the oldest Gothic city hall in the Netherlands and that's really saying something. It was completed in 1450 and is still Gouda's City Hall.  Christopher Columbus wasn't even born yet and Gouda's city council was meeting here. It still does.

 Linnea as burgermeister of Gouda

Windmills in Holland have names.  The one in Gouda is called Molen De Roode Leeuw  which simply means The Red Lion Windmill. It was built in 1727 and is still fully operational, wooden gears and all, although it grinds mostly souvenir flour. 

Some shots around Gouda:

 

 

 

 

The Cheese-weighing house

The Scheveningen district of the Hague still retains a few abandoned WW 2 German defense bunkers, part of the Nazi "Atlantic Wall."  Nearby is a marker where 300 members of the Dutch resistance were shot by the Nazis.

It's sobering to stand here on the beach and try to imagine what it must have been like to be invaded and occupied by the Nazis.

Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. Four days later the Luftwaffe bombed Rotterdam. The bombing destroyed much of Rotterdam's medieval city center, leaving almost 80,000 people homeless. In response to the German threats to destroy other Dutch cites, one by one, the Netherlands - which lacked air defenses - surrendered a few days later.  The Nazis stayed from 1940 to 1945.

 Rotterdam after the German bombing, spring 1940.

abandoned WW2 German bunkers on the beach