The Hague

Once we were in the Netherlands, our holiday started with a two hour guided coach tour of the Hague, followed by a little free time for us to find some lunch & gently mooch a bit.

One good thing about the coach tour was that it took us out to the coastal part of the Hague, i.e. Scheveningen, a part we’d never seen before. This remains very much a fishing village/marina area with some lovely beaches. We gather, too, it is an area for vicious gulls if you dare to stroll along the promenade with your fish & chips in hand.

On the drive to this part of the Hague we discovered how green a city the Hague is with great swathes of wooded parkland. We passed many impressive buildings, often the embassies of various countries from around the world, palaces belonging to the Dutch royal family or the various international courts.

Binnehof

More Binnehof buildings

The Binnehof from the Hovijver side

For lunch we escaped our group & ventured through the courtyard of the Binnehof, the Dutch parliament. We finally discovered a lovely little inn with seating outside in a park. There we enjoyed a couple of uitsmijters met ham. We remembered this wonderful Dutch snack from our first visit to the Netherlands. They usually get translated as “fried eggs with ham”, not the most illuminating description. In fact it is a dish covered with bread, on which some eggs are placed, usually about 3 of them, then covered with ham, and baked in the oven I think. The result is the egg seems something between fried eggs, with some whole unbroken still liquid egg yolk, and an omelette. It’s delicious & I would recommend anyone to keep an eye out for this Dutch speciality & give it a try. I think I could get quite addicted to it.

We sat on the other side of the road enjoying our uitsmijters

After that we had a bit of a stroll round & explored some of the shopping area. We couldn’t go far as we had to get back to the coach for the trip to the hotel. We had no time to really explore any galleries or museums which was a pity.

A distinctive shop

A shopping arcade

One thing that did strike me was that the artificial lake, the Hofvijver, beside the Binnehof & the Mauritshuis gallery, no longer had its artworks. Only fountain disturbed its cool waters. I missed the white man striding out of the water as he had when we’d previously visited in 2005. Clearly that must have been just a temporary exhibition.

Hofvijver with Mauritshuis behind 2005

Mauritshuis across the Hofvijver 2016

Hofvijver 2005

Hofvijver, looking along the Binnehof buildings 2005

Hofvijver without its running man, looking along the Binnehof builings 20016