A Fortnight with Whit - Netherlands Day 5, the Hauge and the tulips

It's Whit back here on the blog to tell you about our day visiting The Hauge and Keukenhof!

Kris left off on our drive to den Haag. While I missed most of the drive, I managed to stay awake to meet our AirBNB host and to go out for dinner. His flat was super cool but had stairs that at a 83 degree angle would never meet code in Canada - gotta love Europe for that. We headed our for dinner on the town and then to bed knowing we had a busy day ahead of us.

Our day started early with breakfast at a corner cafe that was recommended to us by our AirBNB host: espresso, pancakes, croissants, scones, homemade granola, fresh squeeze orange juice, fresh cheeses and cold meats - I must admit there is no better way to start a day!

We headed to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a briefing. This part of our trip was something we had all been really looking forward to because of the work that the ICC does. We had to book our tour over a month beforehand just to get security approval to get in. Their mandate, granted by the UN and ratified by 124 countries, is to prosecute international criminals who commit crimes that fall into four specific categories - crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and (soon to be ratified) crimes of aggression. Many of these heinous acts are perpetrated against women and children, they displace communities, ravage the land and leave a complete and utter wasteland behind. The work that the ICC does also includes enabling communities to rebuild after war, victims to receive aid and support, and a host of educational programs to help under-developed and war torn parts of the world. Through the ICC, many of the worst kinds of criminals face their day in court and are held accountable for the atrocities they've committed or instructed other to commit.

This was us outside the ICC

Unfortunately, the court wasn't in session while we were there so our briefing was exactly that, brief.  We had a short introduction, watched two videos that described the functions and processes of the court and that was it. We were all a little underwhelmed by the briefing but still learned a lot about their ongoing cases and outreach work.

After our morning at the ICC, we hopped back in the car to find us some tulips! Onward to Keukenhof we drove - and by we, I mean Justin, while I again slept in the backseat. Keukenhof is a garden situated in the small town of Lisse who's bread and butter is tulips. Twice a year, the town explodes with tourists who come for one thing - tulips, either in bulb form or flowering. The Keukenhof garden is a 32 hectare park where 7 million tulips are planted annually. Since we arrived a few weeks early for the tulips, we were treated to daffodils, peonies, crocuses, and many other flowers I can't name in the outside gardens.

The colours and scents were amazing - I know I won't be able to do justice to them in pictures but here are a few examples.

Kris did some playing around with the cannon

We had the most Dutch experience while we were there and the perfect picture captured by JP.... standing on the top of a windmill, eating a freshly baked stroop waffle, with a tulip field behind us, while in Keukenhof.

The Dutch-y-est of photos

Followed by the classic clog photo

European standards of safety are far different than ours - it's totally ok to wander out into the pond with no signs, no handles and let people play on wooden lilypads. Though it does make for an awesome picture, and no none of us fell in.

When you really need a wing-man to make sure you don't step in the flower beds.

Without knowing it, we saved the best for last as we wandered around the outside garden paths and finally ended up in the Williem-Alexander greenhouse. This was without a doubt, the most breathtaking of all aspects of the gardens - here the tulips were in full bloom and splendor. We saw tulips that I wouldn't have even believed were tulips had we not been there.

We spent nearly 3 hours there and Justin had to drag Kristin and I away, we happily could have spent the whole day there. If you ever visit the Netherlands in the spring, you MUST make the trip to Keukenhof, you won't regret it.

Among the daffodils

Hanging out with my bro

It was then time to head back to Amsterdam and return the car before meeting up with another one of our Dad's cousin's Anne. Justin and Kristin had met Anne earlier in the week for a beer while I was sleeping off our biking escapades. Anne, while never having met us, was still gracious enough to invite us into her house for dinner and to spend the night. Anne's son Daniel brought over some pizza's handmade by a friend of his and we spent the night drinking, laughing, learning about each other lives, talking about culture, travel, experiences and as Justin so aptly explained in our Day 1/2 post, feeling the comfort of gezellig all around us. It was another wonderful night with new-found family that stands out as a highlight for all of us during the trip.

Netherlands Day 4 - more Amsterdam

We had a lot of catching up to day on Day 4, once Whitney was feeling better! We started off by getting back on our bicycles (my butt is only starting to recover a week later) and heading over to the Resistance Museum.

Leaving our AirBNB and liking the looks of the weather. Also check out how crowded EVERY bike stand is in this city!

 On the way we passed the zoo and these funny guys:

The Resistance Museum was a great companion to the one Justin and I saw in Oslo. I did know a bit more about the occupation of the Netherlands (anyone remember the Lois Lowry book, Number the Stars?), but the details of how slowly and insidiously the Nazis implemented their plan, and the lengths to which people went to escape/fight/assist others was fascinating to me. Here are a few tidbits to share:

Matchbox radio, definitely beating the sofa leg radio from Oslo. This was put together in the mid 40's! I have no idea how a radio works today!

 

 

 

More microdots - they could hide tons of them inside the cap at the end of this razor, and each could be blown up to the full page of information

These buttons were worn by Dutch citizens after Princess Margriet was born in Canada. For those unaware, the Canadian goverment hosted the Dutch Royal Family in exile during World War II, and temporarily declared the maternity ward of the Civic Hospital international territory, so the new baby (Princess Margriet) would inherit her mother's Dutch citizenship and be eligible to rule one day. This, and the liberation of the Netherlands by Canadian soldiers, let to the yearly gift of tulip bulbs from the Dutch royal family and citizens that forms the basis of the Tulip Festival in Ottawa each year.

Bookmark with the birthdate of Princess Margriet

This was a 'poorly made' forgery of identification papers. See if you can tell why by comparing it to the real example below

Remember, people's lives were at stake over this - Jewish people in hiding, Resistance members and those avoiding being ordered to Germany either had to get out of Nazi-occupied Netherlands, hide somewhere like Anne Frank, or rely on fake documents. This real document's red stamp had a finer scalloped edge than the forgery above.

Female resistance members were really important because they attracted less attention. Some couriers would wear 'pregnancy girdles' to smuggle identification papers and ration cards. We also saw a pram with a hold cut out for carrying weapons and other contraband underneath the baby!

This resistance member's identity was exposed, and went into hiding as a woman. He always wore a scarf to conceal his Adam's apple. The bottom picture is his fake identification.

This part of the display commemorated some of the countries that helped to liberate the Netherlands. From left to right, China, Great Britain, and Canada (when we were using the Canadian Red Ensign flag - mostly red, with a Union Jack in the corner and the Canada Coat of Arms in the centre). It's easy to forget that the Maple Leaf didn't become our flag until 1965! I was a little annoyed at first that they'd forgotten to add our flag.

I loved this - lots of Dutch women sewed 'victory skirts' after the war. They used scraps from old clothing that told the story of their life (this was my son's shirt, I wore this dress to my first dance, etc) and could put the fabric together any way they liked, but to be 'officially registered' they had to have plain triangles at the bottom where they could embroider each year that they wore it. This was therapeutic for a lot of women as they looked for good memories to help them through the atrocities they faced during the war.

After the resistance museum we headed over to meet Elke, Will and Otto's daughter, outside the Museumplein. There is a famous sign there with the "I amsterdam" slogan that is super popular with tourists. (Sorry Elke, we may have gone back, after we had drinks with you, to climb on the sign and get more pictures):

While looking up information on the sign (there is a travelling version that moves around the city!), I stumbled onto this video. Hillarious!

The Bike Instructor's Guide to Cycling in Amsterdam

Elke only had a short break from work to visit with us, so we walked through the museum grounds and had some food and drinks at a nearby cafe. You may have seen the fresh mint tea in the pictures with Will and Otto, if you are sharp-eyed. I've never had this anywhere else, but I loved it!!

Yum!

 

After this, Elke had to get back to work, and we headed to the Heineken Brewery for a tour. The company was founded in Amsterdam in the 1860s, and the tour was pretty fun, even if you're a non-beer-drinker (beer hater?) like me.

Whit didn't like the early promotional materials

 

Two things I had never noticed about Heineken (despite serving it for years) - the hops on the vine below the name, and the 'smiling e's' (the horizontal line in the middle slants up and to the right) which are both trademarked, along with the red star

 

These teacher's pets answered questions for extra credit (ie free beer) in the tasting lounge part of the tour, then gave away the beers to others as it's dangerous enough biking in Amsterdam without being drunk!

HILARIOUS video of Justin and Whitney on the Heineken bikes in from of famous sites in Amsterdam. Without meaning to, they were in synch the entire time (and did a credible job trying to sight-read and sing along with the Dutch karaoke!)

 

Want the real video? Go here! (And turn down your speakers)

 

Changing bottles through the years. Justin really liked the squarish one from 1963!

We then wanted to check out the Bloemenmarket (the world's only floating flower market - built in the 1860s) to see the sights. Originally we had planned to bring back tulip bulbs, but were quickly told by locals once we arrived that it was not a good idea - you should only buy bulbs in the fall, after they've flowered, had time to photosynthesize and build the bulb back up, and been freshly dug out of the ground. The ones on sale now are last year's bulbs and so have been out of the soil for at least 6 months - they are very likely not to bloom. Crud! Well, it didn't seem to stop either the vendors there, or hundreds of other tourists buying them like hotcakes (or stroopwafels, to be precise):

 

These ones are pretty likely to bloom!

We finally had to say goodbye to our bikes at this point, so we headed back to the shop and returned our steeds. As much as it bruised my butt cheeks, I have to say I enjoyed riding my bike around like a local (well, I'm pretty sure I angered all the locals as I kept stopping for silly things like red lights and pedestrians) and it helped us to move easily through the city. I may have to do more biking when we get home!

And when I buy a bike, I'll knit it a cozy sweater like this one at the shop!

We took in a few more sights as we walked up towards the Central Station and as the sun was starting to set:

 

Stay tuned for information from Justin about the incredibly crooked buildings of Amsterdam!

We picked up a rental car (check out this hipster Enterprise lobby!) and headed down to Den Haag (The Hague). Whitney passed out in the back seat almost immediately, as usual. Justin was excited to be driving again, and especially in a diesel car, and I was enjoying the incredible sunset:

If this rental office could grow a beard and listen to vinyl, it would.

(Whitney will probably be really excited to see this sunset for the first time!)

Speaking of Whitney, she'll be taking over for our next blog post. We're on the road again, this time to Malta for a week of scuba diving with our scuba club! I'm super excited about the 25*C weather as it means I finally get to wear all of the spring and summer clothes I brought over that I've had no chance to wear for months (my limited wardrobe is getting pretty hard to get excited about at this point - I've worn the same 4-6 pairs of pants for the last 7 months), and we will finally get some Vitamin D!