Ervan’s Weltanschauung

Yes, that’s where I was during the weekend. Amsterdam is just an hour away by train. I had only one mission for Amsterdam, and it does not involve getting high or checking out the red light district. The mission, which of course I choose to do, was to find and purchase a really nice overcoat for myself. And yes, I found a really nice overcoat, and am all set for the cold months ahead in The Hague.

I went to Amsterdam with Pat, hence, I could not do the fun things in Amsterdam with her around.  After all, Pat is really a very nice girl (ehem). As we were waiting for the tram at Circus Theatre, Pat asked me to check the map, and showed me where we were supposed to go. Considering the map was A3 size, and I thought it was really big, I asked Pat whether we are really going to walk that far. Until I realized that the map is on the scale of 100 metres. A lady next to me smiled, obviously overheard our conversation. I had to cover my embarrassment of being overheard by her by laughing.

Amsterdam, is Amsterdam, and after spending most of my time in The Hague, I liked The Hague better, as it is less crowded, and of course, less tourists running around. And in The Hague, people tend to speak in Dutch with me, until I answered back in English. Unlike in France or Germany, they willingly speak in English. But it’s not hard to figure out the words in Dutch. And with the English shows are subtitled instead of dubbed, I am slowly learning to speak in Dutch.

Anyway, back to The Hague, you can actually visit the whole of Netherlands in one hour (or more if you really really walk slow). There is this place called Madurodam which is a must visit if you are in The Hague. They got a miniature of Schiphol Airport complete with airplanes, miniatures of various buildings or places of interest in Netherlands. It is a definite must go, especially for the kids, including the young at heart.

And finally Scheveningen which is where I am staying. It is considered a suburb of The Hague, with a beach facing the North Sea. Right now, I know Nord is North and Zuid is South. Since Scheveningen is by the beach, it gets crowded whenever the sun, not matter how little is out. And with today being sunny, with a slightly warmer temperature (16 Celcius), people are out enjoying what’s left of the summer. Indeed, winter is fast approaching as the hours get shorter, and the temperature slowly drops.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 12:38 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.