Netherlands Day 3 - Den Haag

Tyler and I walked to the corner bakery for our daily bread, but it was closed for the festival. We took the long way back to the apartment, passing two canal streets and seeing lots of families with strollers heading for the "Relief of Leiden" festival (quick summary: The Spanish control the city as part of the 80 Years War. Dutch resist. Spanish beseige the city. Half the population of 70,000 starve. Dutch break through and free the city, bringing herring and white bread. In gratitude, the citizens are offered permanent freedom from taxation or a university. They opt for the university--Leiden University, where David is studying.)

The streets were getting crowded with stalls full of fish, snacks, and various wares--clothes, scarves, jewelry, leather goods. One smaller stand had two old men smoking herring in big oil drums and string the fish out on racks. The traditional food for the day is herring (typically raw with onion, but also smoked I guess) and white bread. Also the Hutspot or "Spanish stew" found in the still-hot pot when the Spanish fled Leiden. Hutspot is mashed potatoes topped with sauteed onions and carrots, which David and Julia prepared for us for that night's dinner. The street fair was going full tilt--we bought fresh stroopwafels hot off the griddle--two thin wafers glued together with a thin layer of caramel. Very good, but very sweet, and much better than the packaged ones David brought home from his mission. In honor of the festival, the local windmill was open for exploring, so we climbed up some very steep, very narrow stairs and looked out at the old wooden gears turning the sails. This particular one was used as a flour mill. Some windmills were used for draining water out of the land, and some for commercial purposes.
The trip to Den Haag (The Hague) was about 15 minutes by train. The city is much more modern and busy, with large governmental and office buildings and shopping centers. We walked about 10 minutes to the older part of the centrum to poke around.

First spontaneous stop was the Prison Gatehouse, one of the oldest buildings in town, from 1300. Sad that the prison is always one of the first things built. That and the church--I guess things don't change all that much. It served as prison and torture chamber. We watched a video of the trial, torture, and murder by the mob of one of the famous Dutch noblemen, later exonerated from his charge of treason. It was a bit gruesome to see the torture devices and note all the little details that had been so carefully thought out so as to inflict as much pain as possible. Despite the horrible purpose of the structure, I enjoyed walking and climbing around in the building. Old buildings have a distinct yet similar smell. I guess it's old wood and brick and stone. Carpet and drywall just aren't that evocative, albeit a lot more comfortable--and warm. But I really could imagine peering through the narrow windows at the mob outside, and hearing all the shouts and screams.

Across the street from the Gatehouse is a large brick-surrounded pond with a fountain, next to the Binnenhof (Parliament Building). They were typical European--large and impressive stone walls, but with Dutch rooflines.

Behind this compound we visited our first art museum, the Mauritshuis. Built as a private home, although it's hard now to see how it functioned as a home, it has a small collection but it's almost all of highly regared works by Dutch Masters, which is the period I most wanted to see. It was so impressive to see the paintings in person, so different from seeing them in a book. The colors are noticeably brighter, the light the artist conveyed was much more engaging. We bought a print of one of my favorites, "View of Delft" by Vermeer, but it doesn't come close. But it reminds me of the value of seeing art in person. Other favorites were "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (Vermeer), and "Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp" (Rembrandt), which I included mainly because seeing it in person changed my mind and made me like it. Also saw several interesting floral still lifes, although despite the symbolic interpretation of the inclusion of bugs (imperfection and decay) and butterflies (change and resurrection), I still wish they had just painted the flowers.

Spontaneous jaunt number 2 was Tyler's interest in heading out to the beach. So on to the tram and through the city and out to the coast. We passed the embassy district, a large park, and the International Court of Justice. The North Sea was windy and cold, but we still walked down to the sand, which was studded so thickly with small shells that the sand crunched as you stepped. But now we can say we've seen the North Sea, age-old enemy of the below-sea-level Dutch.

Back on the tram, the train, and the crowds to Leiden, where we picked up some currant juice, panekuchen (pancakes), and lemon qwark at the market; and some oliebollen (cherry, apple, and pineapple) and frites (French fries) with mayo, ketchup, and curry ketchup from the fair's street vendors.