To The Hague

This morning we had our plans to leave Amsterdam behind for a day and take in The Hague. We got our breakfast at the hotel and headed off to Central station where we would pick up the train out of town. Yes, us and every other tourist in Amsterdam were heading to the train station. Except, most of them had nasty hangovers from being in Dam square all night and we were farther up on the line, so we got a spot on the train. Central station was pretty easy to navigate once we found the ticket counter. You can use the machine if you have coin Euros or a chip and pin card. we had neither. But we got to listen to a group of old Canadian women, with family here, regale a young Canadian couple, with family here, of stories from visiting years ago. Actually everything went off without a hitch. About an hour later we were in The Hague. It was a little sleepier and more historic feeling than Amsterdam. Kind of like being in Boston and taking a trip up the coast to the Salem. We first planned on visiting the Mauritshui museum. Mostly because it is the home of Girl with a pearl earring and I have a man crush on Vermeer. Though, he might be a little old for me. When we arrived I found out that they were doing a special showing of early Vermeer's. In his historical phase of painting. It was odd to see the scale of the paintings being so much larger than his later work. The one down side was learning that there was a retrospective of Hans VanMeegeren, the famed Vermeer forger, in Rotterdam. This is, for some odd reason, a fascination of mine. Alas, I will not be going to Rotterdam. Next time, perhaps. Then it was on to Girl with a pearl earring. I'm still processing how I felt when i saw it. But, awe, about sums it up. There are 36 known Vermeers and 33 have known whereabouts. I hope to see them all, and I am well on my way. The Maruritshui is a very nice museum but a little heavy on the portraiture for my taste. Our second stop was the MC Escher museum. We found out about it by chance as it is not in any of our guidebooks. It resides in the old palace for the royal family and mixes the history of the family and the house into the museum. They also have a great collection of weird chandeliers. One was a huge scull and cross-bones. The museum follows the life and work of MC Escher from birth to death and is very interesting. It is also nearly empty. A drastic change from everywhere else we have been. The Highlight for me was two carved wooden balls of his tessellations. Tessellations are the two repeating figures drawn within each other and repeated. It was also interesting and mildly dumbfounding to find out that most of his work was done in woodblock stamps. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. Then it was off for some lunch before heading back to the big city. We stopped in a place called Cloos. It was a little trendy looking but nice. I was a little scared about the service when the French family next to us as we sat down was becoming impatient with the waitress. If the French think your taking too long to do something you are in serious trouble. But, this turned out to be their problem, not ours. She was typically slow, by American standards, but fine. For beer I got the "seizoenbier", the seasonal I later learned. At any rate, it was an Affligem, I know this because it was on the glass. even though they do not take their beer seriously here they do their barware. It was outstanding. Much better than it is in the states, so fresh. For lunch I had the croquettes, I couldn't resist, and they did not disappoint. They were a little on the pasty side but very tasty. The Mrs. had a Parma ham sandwich with white asparagus and spicy greens on brown bread. Getting back to Amsterdam was a snap and after doing a little RnR back at the hotel we turned our attention to dinner. It was kind of a crap shoot so we picked Cafe De Duvel. It totally paid off. After a tram ride and semi-aimlessly wandering around we finally found it and were greeted warmly as we entered. The service was quite a bit more attentive than we have received thus far and a welcome change. The house beer was good but I don't recall the name right now. To start we had the Carpaccio served traditionally with Parmesan and arugula, also none of that quick hit on the grill b.s. we get in NC, straight up raw and so supple. It was perfect. My entrée was the roasted Iberico pork sided with green beans wrapped in prosciutto and a perfectly cooked au gratin. The Mrs. had a goat cheese ravioli that was also outstanding. Desert was syrup ice cream and funny little waffles sided with poundcake pancake wedges that had been dipped in a mint syrup, all to the good I must say. Again, back for some sleep. Until next time.