My buddy Gareth (who I know from Brooke) from Melbourne come down to visit me in The Hague. He recently moved to Amsterdam to work and conveniently I was in The Hague at the same time.
This was rather exciting as I had been working hard and didn't have any friends on the weekend to hang out with. *violins*
We had a nice dinner at a pub next to where I took Chuck and Owen - which was Silly Symphonies (I can't remember what it was called). The meals were especially good I have to say!
As too was the bier. We took a couple of travellers and a took a night time stroll around Den Haag Centraal. The Binnenhof (inner court/Parliament) was all lit up as too was the Big Church. European cities are cool at night!
The next day we got up late, had breakie (yeah thats right yoghurt for breakfest dutchies!!) and set off to see the Panaroma Mesdag. Wow was that cool! It's a MASSIVE circular painting of an obviously 360' view of Den Haag and Scheveningen, the beach closest to Den Haag in the 1800's. If you're ever going to Den Haag, this is a must see. It warps your perspective as to what is real and what is in the painting. I thought it was going to be crap, as the guy at work says it's where they take school kids, but really enjoyed it!
General Rating: ****
Repeat Visit: **
Next we went to Gemeentemuseum where we got all cultural. We saw some great stuff and some not so great stuff. The museum was quite large and it took us a couple of hours. The also have very squeeky floors.
The best part of the museum for me was the fashion exhibit in the basement. Very cool, but only 3 pairs of shoes! I'm sure Gareth was bored out of his mind in that section.
Finally we made our way to Scheveningen (it's so hard to say! "shaven-nay-grrr") on the number 1 tram. It's pretty touristy and not a lot to offer in the winter. We got some frites and mayo, Gareth found some ladies soap (finally, apparently it's hard to get soap in Amsterdam!??!?), and made our way back to Den Haag.
Pretty tired from all the culture we decided to take in a movie and luckily "The Bourne Supremacy" was playing at the Pathe. According to Gareth it's "The thinking man's action movie." It was great! I loved it. ***** But I'm a sucker for action movies. It inspires you to want to be able to speak 10 different languages, collect 10 different passports, be able to drive like a maniac backwards and be able to lift yourself up from dangling off a ledge. I know that's hard, as I look like a beached whale trying to get out of the swimming pool!
We went for a post-movie drink at my local De Paas which is only 2 mins stagger from my apartment. This has a special place in my heart, this is where I sampled for the first time my new favourite beer "Het Kapittel Blond"
General Rating: *****
Repeat Visit:*****
I got some cool photos of the place and the spunky barman, we scored some free chocolates, and I stole a cool beer-wench poster from the ladies for Gareth's bedroom wall.
Unfortunlately we got kicked out as we'd stayed til closing (not because we were attempting to steal chocolates or posters) and drank more than a few beers. We staggered home and had a nice sleep-in.
On Sun we trucked off with our bellies fully of yoghurt and musli again, to Rotterdam. Arriving (only 20 mins from Den Haag, around lunch time, we found a late 70's dutch diner off the main strip and settled for some cheese croquette's, pea soup and Gareth had some Pork fry-up thing and cheese croquette's. It was a cute little cafe filled with chain smokers and milk drinkers.
We decided to go for a wonder around the main strip, where we ran into a colleague of Gareths. He suggested we check out the Cube Houses which we went in search of (without a map). We passed by a crappy whatever-you-could- ever-not-want market and found the libraby where they were very helpful with information on what to do in our short time in town. We got a free map and set off as it started to rain.
The Cube Houses were very interesting. One owner of a Cube House opened up his place for viewing so this became the "Show Cube"! I could see myself living there if I were to ever live in Rotterdam and if I could get one of these. They are part of Rotterdam's attempt to be modern and not boring, back in the 80's. The houses were designed by the architect Blom, who kind of based the design on trees, the stairs to get up to the apt are in the trunk. I kinda liked them, in an 80's way.
I don't think Gareth was impressed.
Next we passed the old port and then was recommended we take a walk to the new and see why Rotterdam has one of the worlds largest ports. We went, we saw, in the cold and rain.
We decided to head back into the main strip and meet up with Gareth's colleague who was about doing some shopping. He took us to a nice pub for a 'lekker' bier. We had a good chat about stuff, life in the Netherlands and also about Den Haag which he was thinking of moving to.
It was late by then and so we all decided to go our own ways. We got the (delayed) fast train back to Amsterdam via Den Haag, which is where we said "See ya later!" Thanks for coming to visit Gareth! It was heaps of fun!
Rotterdam
General Rating: *** (Crap weather but a dampner on it)
Repeat Visit: *** (We didn't see that much so would like to spend more time there)
Weekend
General Rating: *****
Repeat Visit: ***** (I'd do it all over again!)