Say 'Goodbye' to Belgium, the high speed train brings me to the second country, Netherlands. Well, as my tight schedule in the early period of my Europe trip, I have to skip Rotterdam and go into the deep beach area, Scheveningen in Den Haag (The Hague); a famous international place for different conferences taking place every year in the South Holland of Netherlands.
Due to the bad weather (a heavy rain when I get off the train station and wait for tram & several little rain accompanied with strong wind all around the city and wilder in the beach area, making you frozen in the air!!!) and short-stay in this city, I didn't explore a lot. However, thanks to my lovely girl and the friend introduced by her in Den Haag, I have a really nice city tour with cultural, historic and local stories.
Den Haag, is not small coz of different zones separated by several big parks, and where I leave is a kind of out-of-town feeling, coz it's more like a coach-side town, and you need to take a tram there. Scheveningen, is the name of that area, and also it's famous for the lovely beach, of course if the weather is good enough! Otherwise, you gonna hate the beach-side wind and chili as you were standing in the wind and facing to the strong sea waves, just like me that late afternoon.
* Tips: The public transportation (Tram+Bus) is priced at 3 euro per 90 minutes.
But, don't worry, coz the main check-out points are in the city center (old town) where there you can find a square-shape lake, Hofvijver. You can have a casual walk around the lake, and then you won't miss those museums, fine restaurants where you can half/half street view, monuments/ statues, and the most important, Binnehof. As my friend in Den Haag, it's common to see those politics and even Prime Minister when you are going across Binnehof to your office somewhere in the morning time. Interestingly, Beinnehof, this ex-castle, is still run as Dutch politics/ governmental function; and the Prime Minister is living at the corner little cute house just attached to one of the main arch entrance of Binnehof.
My friend: Seems today he's (Prime Minister) is not in house...
Me: Why? How can you tell that?
My friend: Coz his bicycle is not there in the garden!!!
Yep, that's another side of Netherlands or you can say, Dutch. They love bicycle and treat bicycles much better than Chinese, even we are the No. 1 kingdom of bicycle. And the lovely thing is they will have a cute little carriage behind the bicycle and that's the VIP seats for babies, typically Dutch way. Another typical Dutch tradition in town, is 'Food in the Wall'. There are small shops with a limited space offering self-service kiosks on the walls, and you just input your coins for any food you want. The food offered is quite Dutch style as well; I really love the yummy mashed fish filling in those crispy fried flour. Such an attractive scent of fried stuff!!!
MUST-CHECK-POINTS >
when i was there, the museum is under maintenance, so it's closed totally!
where I really want to go for check, but unfortunately it's out of opening hours when I arrive :(
Scheveningen >
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