During our stay in Den Haag Lindsay and I did lots of walking, we would walk from Beer’s apartment in the direction of the shops and just wander around.
One day we came across some people moving into a their new house, Dutch Style!
This a lovely square in the middle of a very trendy and exclusive part of Den Haag,
right next to this was the American Embassy which was a massive concrete, ugly building with half the dutch police force standing around it looking rather put out.
Looking up in the middle of the square this was all you could see
One weekend we hired bicycles and spent 3 days cycling around Den Haag and the nearby countryside and beachside.
We would spend hours riding around the woods, choosing interesting looking paths.
We found this pretty canal
And then suddenly we stumbled across the Queen’s backyard gate. We knew it was her backyard cos we had seen it at Madurodam the previous week!
One day we rode out through some sand dunes, there were many frustrating hills, and we were riding against the wind and my bike had no gears on it, and it was really hot and my behind started losing all feeling because of the bike seat. When we finally left the sand dunes I was well and truly ready for a pancake at the Pancake Restaurant we were heading towards. We had yummy pancakes, mine with cheese, bacon and apple and sultanas! Lindsay had capsicum, salami and mushrooms. So good. (really, why we don’t have pancake restaurants in Australia is totally beyond me)
After the pancakes we found this lovely lady wading in a pond
I found a bridge and made my way casually across it back to our waiting bicycles.
We rode up and down this lovely country path just because we could
And then we found a broken tree which probably went down in the massive storm I will write about in my next blog.
We then left the quiet sanctuary of the woods and stopped by this rather interesting statue
and by interesting of course I mean “What the hell is that?”
I was having a few problems with my hired bike (I have bruises on my shins to prove it) the brakes didn’t work so well, they were the sort where you have to back peddle, but that meant I couldn’t ride off easily after stopping. So Lindsay (who I think secretly thought it was a case of the bike version of PEBKAC) had a quick ride on the bike for me to see if he could come up with a solution.
After nearly being run over by a tram because I had to use my feet as brakes we headed to Albert Heijn, so I could feed my new addiction to Albert Heijn brand Mango Juice.
Albert Hijn is like the Woolworths of Holland. Except far more elite. If anyone reading this is from Woolies…listen up.
Most Albert Heijns here have free coffee, tea and biscuits in the middle of the shop for when you get tired from grocery shopping.
They sell awesome things like hagelslag, shoarma, cinnamon icecream etc.
Each shop has a huge section devoted only to cheese, another for just bread and another for just cold meats to put on bread. (they like this sandwiches here) And in the big Albert Heijn in Den Haag, each shopper gets a handheld scanner and goes around the shop scaning their items and putting them in their trolley before plugging the scanner into the computer at the end, paying and leaving!
But if we want to talk about shops with huge sections of food…then look no further than the Sligro!
Its a giant supermarket that Business’s buy their supplies at.
Beer took us there with him to do some grocery shopping!
This is HALF the cheese section!
This is the bread section!
There was free samples every 10m or so!
Here is Beer and I drinking our free wine samples in the lift!
But not only do they have free samples but a cafe with free drinks and biscuits! It was really exciting at Sligro…I am a little bit distrubed at how excited I got…after all it was only the world’s greatest supermarket!!!
On the way back from the Sligro Beer told us why some dutch people have rather rude last names. Apparently last names came about during the Napolonic times. It was decided that every Dutch person had to be registered, with a first and last name. Most Dutch people were farmers and didn’t really have a last name. So when they registered they made up a last name. Some choosing their profession Boer (farmer) or the place they were from Van Gennep (from Gennep). And others, who thought this whole surname name business was a bit stupid and would never last chose names such as:
Piel (Penis)
Billepeuter (bottom-picker)
Gladpootjes (smooth-legs)
Godhelp (so help me God)
Heetebrij (hot porridge)
Natvantranen (wet of tears)
Komtebedde (come in the bed)
Zonderkop (without a head)
Poepjes (stool, motion)
De Koe (cow)
De Scheele (the cross-eyed)
I found these Here
Read the article, its pretty funny!
Next up!
Schevengen, where Lindsay I went nearly every other day because of its awesomeness.
2 Comments
we do have pancake restaurants! pancakes on the rocks!
http://www.pancakesontherocks.com.au/home
Pancakes on the rocks as I recall only have thick sweet pancakes, I have been there a few times in hope that they have taken a Dutch approach to pancake-ery….they haven’t
The pancake restaurants here have at least 20 savoury options, such as bacon, apple and bacon, cheese and ham etc cooked into the pancake, one place had over 100 options! its was crazy. They also have sweet pancakes which usually are fruit cooked into the pancakes then covered in icing sugar and sometimes cream.