The home of Haagen Daaz

The Hague, or Den Haag, as the Dutch call it, is the administrative capital of the Netherlands, while Amsterdam holds the title of the cultural capital. The Parliament, one of the royal palaces and other important sites are in Den Haag. Also, the International Court of Justice is here. The building was apparently sponsored and donated to the cause by the America millionaire Armand Hammer; nonetheless, it is very Dutch in style. With all this in mind, Hague is a calm and pretty city with canals, parks, fountains, statues and important-loooking dudes in suits walking around. Here are the pictures.

View of the Parliament building and the adjacent pond.

Entering the Parliament courtyard. It is allowed, but highly supervised. The building itself is medieval and very interesting.


Detail of the courtyard fountain...


...the Gothic church...


...the tower steeple...


...and the royal paraphernalia. It was at this point I suddenly realized I was in a kingdom - for the first time in my life!


Admiring the general splendour...


And here, Roxy and Vicky are in front of the International Court of Justice.

This is the house that Armand built. Quite impressive. By the way, did you know that the US did not join the Court?

This monument in front of the Court is called World Peace Flame - it has a flame in the middle and rocks from almost every country in the world around the circle. Very touching and meaningful. And pretty, too!

Street in Hague.

Eten-drinken :)

The beautiful woman in front of the store looks real - but she is not!

After walking through Hague, we hopped on a tram to the beach and took a stroll along the shore of the North Sea. This here is a fancy-shmancy hotel right on the shore, where presidents and royalty usually stay. The pancake house under it (red sign on the left) is where we recuperated and warmed up a little before heading home. The pancakes weren't bad at all!