Den Haag - Delft - Kinderdijk

Den Haag (The Hague)

12 May 2008 – national holiday: Whit Monday/Pentecost Monday/Monday of the Holy Spirit (celebrated after Pentecost)

It was like a ghost town, perhaps because of the holy spirit in town. This place is the 3rd largest after Amsterdam & Rotterdam. Scheisse! Should have gone earlier .. when there's more people. The shopping rows look chic juge, global brands intertwined with Dutch brands. Den Haag is the actual seat of government, but, somewhat anomalously, not the official capital of the Netherlands, a role set aside by the Dutch constitution for Amsterdam. So its kinda like Putra Jaya lah kiranya. A mixture of old and modern buildings. Oh .. should've gone the night before. Tak pe, if long age-cheap fortune, arrive again in Amsterdam .. definitely will come to this place.



Delft
Beautiful town with small canals and bridges. A place known for the painter Vermeer, Delft Blue pottery (Delftware), the Delft University of Technology, and its association with the Royal Family.

Ann shopped for souvenirs quite a bit here. Nat had a mind of her own and decided to have a different t-shirt from what we wanted to buy (diff color, pattern & size altogether). Sheesh! Betul lah budak ni. And as usual, kejar merpati at the town centre (square)


Kinderdijk

Pronounced kinderdeck – Dutch for Child’s Dike, berpusing sekejap cari the exact location. Lucky us, there were a few spaces near the entrance (€5.00). Masyaallah Tuhan maha kaya … jumpa Farok lagi, this time he’s with Rudy (with his Suzuki Cuppacino) .. tak jadi pergi Antwerp coz he slept in, thanks to us (who also slept like a log)

Such a beautiful open space so good to just have an afternoon stroll. The path split into 2, for bike & for pedestrians. You can go into the mills (€3.50 adult, kids can’t remember, below 6 free). Amazing, these structures still work. The arm of the windmill is made of steel! The blades are like sails, you can roll the “sail” if you don’t want the mill to spin.


All in all, we had great fun and a wonderful time in Belgium and the Netherlands. I must say, driving was not stressful - even enjoyable. Thanks to Garmin. If I were God, the guy/gal who created sat-nav would get full points for making human life so much easier.

Nederland (BTW: Neder = Low, Land = Country) – I’ll be back.

Acknowledgements:
i) God - for granting us safety and a lot of sunshine during our stay
ii)Ann - the one berlumus-tungkus preparing for this trip. A lot of trees were cut due to the amount of papers printed.
iii)Dell - for the SD Card with Europe map for Garmin
iv) Farok - the perfect host