going to bene without the lux: den haag
for the uninitiated, benelux stands for the lands of belgium, netherlands and luxembourg. -cue ORRHHHH....-
ok, i managed to type sth on amsterdam from alfian´s room, see below for the post, so i wont be going on and gushing about its loveliness. i'll just go on and gush about the rest of the places that sam and i visited over the week AFTER squatting (crashing) in alfian's territory. i'll just narrate as much as i can in this post, the pictures (475 in total) are stored in my laptop because i've lost wireless yet again. so pictures later, words now.
DEN HAAG:
we reached den haag in the early afternoon, prepared to visit the two museums, the mauritishuis and the mc esher museum AND the mother of all courts (except for strasbourg) the international court of justice in the peace palace. its like since we're law students we might as well go and see see abit right. having come all the way to the netherlands and not see the ICJ is like going to singapore and not eating hainanese chicken rice (my third consecutive lame analogy. apologies). and this being europe, any city on a sunday would be probably 90% dead, if you take copenhagen as an example. and after being wow-ed to bits by the expanse of food (cheap at that) and shopping in amsterdam, we were crossing our fingers for den haag. after fiddling with a super high tech map printing machine at the train station (the machine prints you a map with directions to get you to the place you want to go) we set off in a random general direction to find the mauritshuis.
if you didnt already know (i mean i didnt before i reached holland), rembrandt, van gogh and vermeer are dutch. and because i missed the rembrandt and van gogh museum in amsterdam, i needed my fix of these guys and promptly found their paintings in the mauritshuis. no van gogh there, coz the museum only houses paintings from the dutch classical period and van gogh's pretty much younger than the other two. i know next to nothing about art history, so it was very very enriching and enlightening to be able to have a nifty audio guide to listen to as you walk from painting to painting. we werent able to catch the entire collection of the museum because they we introducing a new collection and cordoned off one the levels. that was a pity, but in return we got free entrance! to poor students on a tight budget, this is welcome news i tell you. anyway we did see the famed girl with the pearl earring so all's good.
after mauritshuis, we followed taryn's advice to the mc esher museum, which absolutely blew us away. this guy, mc esher is a brillant brillant genius whom i cant begin to describe as how brillant. just google mc esher and you'll understand why. i think most of us would have once upon a time come across illustrations of optical illusions like stairs leading to nowhere, rooms both concave and convex et al? mc esher is the mind behind these awesome pictures. the museum also featured some of his woodcuts from his early days and the fine detail of those is similarly breathtaking. for the most part, sam and i were speechless.
and then it was off to find lunch. den haag is happening ok. even on a sunday, the shops are open, people are out on streets having a good time, a stark contrast to copenhagen. and i need to give special mention that there is a dean & deluca cafe in den haag. -gasp- ok, on with the post. remembering that we are poor students on a tight budget, lunch options are limited to 6 euros and below. max that we are willing to pay is 8euros. very limited options. so we ended up eating subway at den haag :) subway meatballs are oddly comforting. maybe its because they are HOT and it was cold in den haag. we were also blessed to find a super neat chips shop (the dutch call it patat) along the shopping area and for cold and hungry travellers, mayo with onions on hot freshly fried chips is the bomb. there was no way we could refuse the aroma and the sound of that sizzle.
and we tried to find the ICJ. honestly we did. the tourist info lady told us to take a certain tram which would most certainly stop in front of the ICJ. it certainly did not. and we took the tram all the way to god-knows-where until we decided we were getting lost and it was high time to get out of the tram and head to rotterdam. where are your signs ICJ?! how do you expect your plaintiffs to find you if your tourists cant?! i was sorely disappointed as you can see. now i cant say ive been there done that in den haag. phooey.
ok, i managed to type sth on amsterdam from alfian´s room, see below for the post, so i wont be going on and gushing about its loveliness. i'll just go on and gush about the rest of the places that sam and i visited over the week AFTER squatting (crashing) in alfian's territory. i'll just narrate as much as i can in this post, the pictures (475 in total) are stored in my laptop because i've lost wireless yet again. so pictures later, words now.
DEN HAAG:
we reached den haag in the early afternoon, prepared to visit the two museums, the mauritishuis and the mc esher museum AND the mother of all courts (except for strasbourg) the international court of justice in the peace palace. its like since we're law students we might as well go and see see abit right. having come all the way to the netherlands and not see the ICJ is like going to singapore and not eating hainanese chicken rice (my third consecutive lame analogy. apologies). and this being europe, any city on a sunday would be probably 90% dead, if you take copenhagen as an example. and after being wow-ed to bits by the expanse of food (cheap at that) and shopping in amsterdam, we were crossing our fingers for den haag. after fiddling with a super high tech map printing machine at the train station (the machine prints you a map with directions to get you to the place you want to go) we set off in a random general direction to find the mauritshuis.
if you didnt already know (i mean i didnt before i reached holland), rembrandt, van gogh and vermeer are dutch. and because i missed the rembrandt and van gogh museum in amsterdam, i needed my fix of these guys and promptly found their paintings in the mauritshuis. no van gogh there, coz the museum only houses paintings from the dutch classical period and van gogh's pretty much younger than the other two. i know next to nothing about art history, so it was very very enriching and enlightening to be able to have a nifty audio guide to listen to as you walk from painting to painting. we werent able to catch the entire collection of the museum because they we introducing a new collection and cordoned off one the levels. that was a pity, but in return we got free entrance! to poor students on a tight budget, this is welcome news i tell you. anyway we did see the famed girl with the pearl earring so all's good.
after mauritshuis, we followed taryn's advice to the mc esher museum, which absolutely blew us away. this guy, mc esher is a brillant brillant genius whom i cant begin to describe as how brillant. just google mc esher and you'll understand why. i think most of us would have once upon a time come across illustrations of optical illusions like stairs leading to nowhere, rooms both concave and convex et al? mc esher is the mind behind these awesome pictures. the museum also featured some of his woodcuts from his early days and the fine detail of those is similarly breathtaking. for the most part, sam and i were speechless.
and then it was off to find lunch. den haag is happening ok. even on a sunday, the shops are open, people are out on streets having a good time, a stark contrast to copenhagen. and i need to give special mention that there is a dean & deluca cafe in den haag. -gasp- ok, on with the post. remembering that we are poor students on a tight budget, lunch options are limited to 6 euros and below. max that we are willing to pay is 8euros. very limited options. so we ended up eating subway at den haag :) subway meatballs are oddly comforting. maybe its because they are HOT and it was cold in den haag. we were also blessed to find a super neat chips shop (the dutch call it patat) along the shopping area and for cold and hungry travellers, mayo with onions on hot freshly fried chips is the bomb. there was no way we could refuse the aroma and the sound of that sizzle.
and we tried to find the ICJ. honestly we did. the tourist info lady told us to take a certain tram which would most certainly stop in front of the ICJ. it certainly did not. and we took the tram all the way to god-knows-where until we decided we were getting lost and it was high time to get out of the tram and head to rotterdam. where are your signs ICJ?! how do you expect your plaintiffs to find you if your tourists cant?! i was sorely disappointed as you can see. now i cant say ive been there done that in den haag. phooey.
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