Blogs from The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands, Europe - page 2

After visiting the botanic garden my TB friend guided me walking to her final destination. I made a stop to shoot an old Ford Edsel named after Henry Ford's son. The Edsel was in production for only two years and was a financial disaster for Ford. Now an Edsel in good shape is very valuable. We went on to Panorama Mesdag and I was surprised to see how wonderful this place was. Inside on the second floor was a very large painting with a circular 360 degree view of the sea, beaches, and the Village of Scheveningen from the mid 1880s. This spectacular painting was done by Hendrik Willem Mesdag (and others) in 1880 and opened to the public in 1881. The view was realistic and made me feel like I was looking from a large ... read more

I took a short train ride to Den Haag Centraal, then a tram to my hotel. After checking in to the hotel I quickly started my walking tour of this historic city. I went by some charming old row buildings on my way to the Paleistuin (Royal Garden). This nice garden with its beautiful trees was established around 1600 AD; and was open free to the public during the daylight hours. I lucked out and there was good live entertainment there. With the music at my back I strolled around checking out their large trees. This was a great place to relax to nature, in a nice city. (Every evening after my days tours in The Hague, I would come here to the Paleistuin to relax before my early bedtime.) There was a good view of ... read more

The Hague (Den Haag) was only a 30 minute train ride from Haarlem so planned a one day trip there. We wanted to visit on the way north in 2013 but didn’t get the chance so now that we soon will be leaving the Netherlands we took the opportunity. Haarlem has an excellent art museum of work by Frans Hals, but decided not to go as our plan was to visit the Mauritshuis and the Escher Museum in The Hague. The Mauritshuis is known for its collection of the Dutch and Flemish Golden Age of Artists which would naturally include Frans Hals. The train trip to Den Haag took us through one of the agricultural areas of the country. Many had been fields of flowers that were now empty except for the greens left behind and ... read more

I arrived in The Hague late last night and met up with my roommates aunt, who is the court reporter for the final trial being held at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Last night was also the first full night sleep I got since I began travelling so it was well needed. The next morning I went to the ICTY to witness part of this final trial, the man on trial is Ratko Mladic, nicknamed the "Butcher of Bosnia," who was Chief of Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska and is accused of being responsible for the Siege of Sarajevo, the largest massacre in Europe post-WWII. The tribunal was really interesting as at the time i was there the main defence lawyer was questioning a witness, but this lawyer had quite ... read more

Greetings Everyone, This past week, my parents came to visit. They started off about 2.5 weeks ago by heading to Morocco, then came to the Netherlands this past Tuesday. We were all pretty tired from travelling so much in the past while, so this weekend was pretty relaxed (though my apartment is completely clean for once :D). Saturday we went for a stroll around Spui and Chinatown, followed by visiting a carnival that was set up in Plein (outside Parliament and the American Embassy). Sunday we went to the Louwman Museum - one of the greatest collections of cars in the world. Here's a link to browse through it: http://www.louwmanmuseum.nl/Ontdekken/Ontdek-de-collectie.aspx Many pictures as always. Cheers, Joel Tannas... read more