Delft, Rotterdam and The Hague

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For day two of our car rental, we (4 polish students and I) decided to squeeze the most out of our Euros and see three cities.

We started out in Delft, which sounds about as exciting as it is. It has a nice city hall, and Amsterdam like canals all over the city. That said, it was completely dead. Maybe on a nice sunny day during tourist season the city’s charm comes out. Maybe. We didn’t have time to wait and got back in the car to see what else Holland had to offer.

The exact opposite of Delft, The Hague is gorgeous, lively, livable, charming and a must see if you are in the area. After much confusion, I found out post-trip that while Amsterdam is the country capital, The Hague is the ‘seat of government.’ (State department website) After finding that out, I wondered ‘so what is a capital?’ According to Webster’s online dictionary: ‘3 a : a city serving as a seat of government.’ I gave up. In a country where pot is illegal but enforcing the law is not allowed, the age of sexual consent is 14 (12 if the left gets its way) and three person civil unions were just approved, trying to figure out why the ‘capital’ is not ‘the capital’ may well be a complete waste of time.

First, we had to go to the Polish Embassy so as the Polish students could vote. I should add that the trip was going to be made up of 5 polish students, but word got out that one was going to vote for the ‘reformed’ communist party and… A SPOT BECAME AVAILABLE! So, they voted and I toured the embassy. After visiting 4 U.S. Embassies in the past year, I should add that Polish Embassy Security officials have no future working for the State Department. Entering the embassy involves the following. 1. Press Buzzer, 2. Answer the Question: ‘are you all Polish?’ 3. Walk in. There is lots of speculation in Warsaw that they may be the next victim of a terrorist attack. I personally doubt a ‘would be’ bomber would bother traveling that far. Saying ‘yes’ in Polish is even easier than ‘open sesame.’

We then headed over to Binnenhof (the structure that comprises parliament and government buildings) for lunch. After which we split up for a few hours to do independent touring. But back before seven! We had to run over to Rotterdam before it got too late.

Rotterdam was fun. It was late in the day and the host to the best humor of the trip. “Why are all the parking spots facing the other way”… Maybe this is a one way street…”Oh”. “I think we are going the wrong way”… “but the map says the bridge is that way”… “We are in Rotterdam, which city is the map of?”… “Right, maybe we should go the other way.” We saw the Erasmus bridge, Kubus-Paalwoningen (apartments that face down towards the street), and ‘the Pencil’, another unique apartment building that looks like its name.

A day well spent, and time to head home to Maastricht.

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Photos

Holland's Famous Clog
Next to me is the driver for the day. Wocush is classmate Magda's boyfriend who was in town for the week before heading back to Warsaw.

Delft: Amsterdam like canal with lots of green sludge
We passed on this tour

The ballot box inside the Polish Embassy
I was tempted to grab the box and run, but thanks to the wisdom that has taken me this far in life, I resisted and am free to tell you about it!

Apartments that face down and the Pencil
We wondered how popular these 'down slanted' apartments were, and found out that 20% were for sale. Well, they looked cool.

Comments

[jc]

Thanks
Delightful reading and viewing, as usual!