Having been to Den Haag I couldn't pass up a stop at the yarn shop WOOOL, so I dropped in just as it was opening and saw a variety of yarns, but the one that caught my eye was this Araucanía Ranco in these blue and purple shades. These were the last two skeins available in this color, so I just had to get them, despite having told myself I wouldn't buy any more yarn, oh well, I'll just add these to my stash until I decide what to use them for.
This photo shows that cyclist also have to stop at intersections and they even have their own traffic lights. Just like pedestrians the cyclists have a button to press and then have to wait for the light to turn green for them to cross. In places like Den Haag this is really necessary, not so much in the actual center of town as that is now more or less closed off to cars, but more on the outskirts where there are a lot of cars and also a lot of cyclists. Mind you this doesn't mean that all cyclists stop at red lights, some of them keep going if there aren't any cars coming. Seeing as I'd not been on a bike in years and despite not having any problems riding my friends bike, I still rather preferred stopping at the lights and not risking getting run over.
This is the church on De Binnenhof, which is the large courtyard I mentioned in my previous post that is surrounded by De Buitenhof where the parliament resides. It's a nice church from the outside, having never been inside. There are guided tours where they'll take you inside the church, but I was enjoying myself too much on the bike and riding along in Den Haag to go do a guided tour, maybe next time.
These deer are found in a park between Centraal Station (central station) and Het Malieveld a big field at the entrance to the highway which holds all sorts of festivals throughout the year or big events. There were quite a lot of deer, but you can't get close to them as they are fenced in on one side and on the other side (where I was at) they have a canal and a wooden fence separating the deer from the people. There were several males with their antlers, but they were just too far away for me to get a decent picture, so I just got some of the females and the babies.
This picture was technically not taken in Den Haag, but in Voorburg where my friend lives, but as I took it while riding my friend's bike I decided to add it. I've always love this statue just because it really depicts a typical Dutch scene where the mother or father takes their children to school on the bike (ok, so maybe nowadays a lot of parents take their children to school by car, but there still plenty of people riding their bikes). Anyway if you notice the heads on these statues are actually umbrellas, which proves the point that it could be pouring down with rain, you'll still see people cycling holding on to their umbrellas or not.
Well that was it, only two more days left before I get back on the plane and head back to Portugal, I've had a great time and spent plenty of time with my friends which was the whole point of coming here in the first place. I've missed having my dogs around though I think it would have been even more fun if they'd been here with me because we'd have gone on really nice long walks exploring the neighbourhood. I'll see them shortly though and I bought treats for them because I couldn't be with them on the 4th of October which is Animal Day.
So I've been in The Netherlands (NL) since last week Thursday evening, and the first few days I drove around doing a lot of shopping for things to take back to Portugal with me. But yesterday, despite the gloomy but warm day (the first couple of days were really sunny and warm), I decided to go for a bike ride (hence the picture above of a bike) to the center of Den Haag (The Hague/Haia). Besides I needed to get some groceries for dinner which I'd be cooking for my friend and her boyfriend that evening. So here are a couple of pictures of my bike ride from Voorburg to the center of Den Haag. Just pictures of the local sights that I'm so used to having gone to Den Haag loads of times when I was still living here.
So the picture above shows a bike and you find these sign posts everywhere indicating a bicycle path, so cars have to be extra careful, and let me tell you while driving here, I've been extra vigilant to make sure I don't run any cyclists over. In Portugal it isn't much of a problem as you don't see too many people cycling, especially on the roads (you do see them now and again), but here in NL they're everywhere and should you have an accident involving a car and a bike and whether or not it's their fault, usually the person driving the car gets the blame and the heavy fine and might even have to pay the medical costs for the cyclist, so if you're ever driving around in NL be very careful turning corners, if you see a bike coming let it pass first.
Here above we see the new Randstad Rail, they were still figuring out some problems with it when I left NL 2 years ago, but it now seems to be running smoothly. It connects Zoetermeer with Den Haag and lots of people use it. It's almost like the Metro in Porto but not quite. I've not had a chance to go on it yet, but maybe next time I come for a visit I'll have a go.
There are lots of things to do and see in Den Haag, plenty of museums, just lovely architecture to behold in the buildings you pass by. The building above is the Maurits Huis and is a museum of art with plenty of paintings of famous Dutch artists. I've never been inside, because looking at paintings just isn't my thing, but I love looking at architecture, and I love this building, despite it not being anything too special compared to some other buildings in Den Haag, but I like it nonetheless.
Here we have De Buitenhof which is where parliament is housed. It's a huge block of lovely buildings (there is also a new glass building on one side) with a lovely big courtyard on the inside where there's a church and the entrance to most of the buildings. On one side of De Buitenhof is a huge man-made lake with a small island in the middle and a large fountain. This little island gets used by several ducks throughout the year. In the winter they put up an ice-rink at the very far end of the lake, and should it be a really cold winter that the lake freezes over completely and it's safe to skate then people will just skate on the lake itself. I've never had the pleasure of skating on the actual lake, but I've walked by it plenty of times and taken pictures of the wildlife surrounding it.
And here we have Paleis Noordeinde, where the Queen has her office, or at least it used to be her office, and probably still is. Right next door to the left of this picture is an old house which used to be Prins Willem Alexander's house until he married Prinses Maxima and so now they live on a large property in Wassenaar. I believe the house still belongs to the royal family, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
Having been to Den Haag I couldn't pass up a stop at the yarn shop WOOOL, so I dropped in just as it was opening and saw a variety of yarns, but the one that caught my eye was this Araucanía Ranco in these blue and purple shades. These were the last two skeins available in this color, so I just had to get them, despite having told myself I wouldn't buy any more yarn, oh well, I'll just add these to my stash until I decide what to use them for.
This photo shows that cyclist also have to stop at intersections and they even have their own traffic lights. Just like pedestrians the cyclists have a button to press and then have to wait for the light to turn green for them to cross. In places like Den Haag this is really necessary, not so much in the actual center of town as that is now more or less closed off to cars, but more on the outskirts where there are a lot of cars and also a lot of cyclists. Mind you this doesn't mean that all cyclists stop at red lights, some of them keep going if there aren't any cars coming. Seeing as I'd not been on a bike in years and despite not having any problems riding my friends bike, I still rather preferred stopping at the lights and not risking getting run over.
This is the church on De Binnenhof, which is the large courtyard I mentioned in my previous post that is surrounded by De Buitenhof where the parliament resides. It's a nice church from the outside, having never been inside. There are guided tours where they'll take you inside the church, but I was enjoying myself too much on the bike and riding along in Den Haag to go do a guided tour, maybe next time.
These deer are found in a park between Centraal Station (central station) and Het Malieveld a big field at the entrance to the highway which holds all sorts of festivals throughout the year or big events. There were quite a lot of deer, but you can't get close to them as they are fenced in on one side and on the other side (where I was at) they have a canal and a wooden fence separating the deer from the people. There were several males with their antlers, but they were just too far away for me to get a decent picture, so I just got some of the females and the babies.
This picture was technically not taken in Den Haag, but in Voorburg where my friend lives, but as I took it while riding my friend's bike I decided to add it. I've always love this statue just because it really depicts a typical Dutch scene where the mother or father takes their children to school on the bike (ok, so maybe nowadays a lot of parents take their children to school by car, but there still plenty of people riding their bikes). Anyway if you notice the heads on these statues are actually umbrellas, which proves the point that it could be pouring down with rain, you'll still see people cycling holding on to their umbrellas or not.
Well that was it, only two more days left before I get back on the plane and head back to Portugal, I've had a great time and spent plenty of time with my friends which was the whole point of coming here in the first place. I've missed having my dogs around though I think it would have been even more fun if they'd been here with me because we'd have gone on really nice long walks exploring the neighbourhood. I'll see them shortly though and I bought treats for them because I couldn't be with them on the 4th of October which is Animal Day.
