Our ground floor, one bedroom apartment is at Papestraat 3 in Den Haag. It is full of natural light from tall windows fronting onto a small garden area. It is comfortable as in the bed is comfy for sleeping and the couches are comfy for sitting. The apartment is in a pedestrian only area and…
Month: April 2023
There is a reason we don’t stay in Amsterdam
Many tourists stay in Amsterdam and take day trips to Delft, Haarlem, Rotterdam, We much prefer to stay in Delft or Den Haag and make a day trip to Amsterdam. It’s not that far. From Den Haag central station, you can be in south Amsterdam in 40 minutes or so by train. Anyway… Today was the…
All the Vermeer’s in…Amsterdam
That’s a lot of Vermeers making up the current exhibit at the Rijksmuseum—27, to be exact. We were early for the appointed time printed on our tickets, but were allowed in. We followed the blue line up the stairs to the darkened rooms where the paintings were positioned far apart on ink black walls under faint halos…
Vermeer’s Delft with Esther
Post by Ella We go to see the big Vermeer exhibit tomorrow in Amsterdam so it was fitting that today we visited the Museum Prinsenhof’s exhibit on Vermeer’s Delft. Esther met us at Cafe Barbaar in Delft for cappuccinos and pastry. Then the three of us strolled to the Prinsenhof just a few feet away….
You know you are in Holland when…
Post by Grubb
Albert Heijn
Post by Ella One of the biggest grocery chains in the Netherlands is Albert Heijn. Akin to a Ralph’s or Smiths. If we need a little bit of this and a little bit of that, we go to Albert Heijn. Last time I was here (in 2016), I brought my Albert Heijn shopping bag home…
The Dutch Nacho
Post by Grubb The snack of choice in these parts is the French fry. People walk the streets with snow cone cups spilling over with the starchy delight cut not like the slender MacDonalds striplets, but in chunky fingers of potato heaven.
The Little Street
Post by Grubb Ella smells the flowers in the same spot where, around four hundred years ago, Vermeer painted a couple of children playing on the flagstones in front of the house famous for its red window shutter.
The Dreamscape of Delft
Post by Grubb Delft is a compact, tidy town bisected by a canal and its grid line tributaries. Vermeer caught its quiet domestic beauty in “The Little Street”; he captured the play of light and shadow of the cloud drift in his “View of Delft”. These paintings are more than four-hundred years old, but the neighborhoods we’ve…
Return of the Clumpets
Post by Grubb Every now and then in our travels we stay in an apartment on either the first or second floor, and around one or two in the morning the Clumpet family arrives to clamorously settle in upstairs. Heavy footsteps tromp back and forth, back and forth, for the next couple of hours. The unceasing, almost…
OV Chip Cards
This is what I love about the Dutch. So practical. One card can be used to ride trains, trams, busses, ferries all over the Netherlands. We found the simple“anonymous” OV chip card that can be topped up with credit over and over again to be invaluable. The card itself expires in 5 years. We stopped at…
Esther’s Pond
Trustworthy The street where we are staying in Den Haag only allows pedestrian traffic and is lined with small shops. Right next door to our apartment is a coffee shop across from the store pictured below. While I was sipping my morning cappuccino, I watched the sales woman in charge leave without closing, much less…
Catching up with Esther in Delft
After coffee, We made our way to Delft to meet old friend Esther. She invited us to spend the afternoon and evening (which included a home cooked meal). Esther had suggested we take the tram to Delft instead of the train. It is only 17 km between Den Haag and Delft. We did take the…
Den Haag Holiday
Post by Grubb Vermeer Auditions These young women waiting for their flight to Amsterdam discuss which Vermeer portrait they’d like to pose for. Monumental Hunger I walked by a park that had a pungent dispensary aroma and noticed that even statuary get the munchies. Hanging with the old dudes We stopped at a cafe for…
Touch Down on King’s Day
Post by Ella First of all, we feel a bit thrown off by how smooth the travels were. Both flights (ABQ to ORD then ORD to AMS) departed early and landed early. Passport control in Amsterdam was efficiently fast. We were able to immediately catch a train to Den Haag (The Hague, our final destination)…