Volume 2, Day 30
My original plan was to spend 2-3 nights in Leiden and then continue moving southwards, but I’m such a good guest that it takes more than a couple days to wear out my welcome. It was suggested to me that I use Leiden as a base to take day trips to neighboring cities. Specifically, given the proximity of The Hague to Leiden, it is a reasonable day trip that doesn’t require too much time or money in transportation.
After a couple cups of coffee and some toast in the morning, I packed a day bag and biked over to the train station. In order to get to the Hague and back, I’d need to put money on the OV card which left me with much the same difficulty as buying a train ticket from scratch, i.e. the OV card service machines wanted me to use what I can only assume was a Dutch bank card to transfer funds over. That really kind of defeats the purpose of a transport card. There was a human staffed service desk and I was able to load 10 euros using cash, but I had to pay a 50 cents surcharge. I’m not sure if that extra fee is a penalty for using cash or for speaking to a human. Either way, I’m pretty fcking fed up with Dutch finances.
The train to the Hague took a little while because I got on a sprinter rather than an intercity train (the sprinter stops all all intermediary stations). Also, in terms of starting the day in a bad mood, the Leiden Centraal platforms were so long that they are split into A and B, which created a bit of confusion since several trains were supposed to be heading in the same direction from the same platform, but they are all running late. At some point several minutes after the train should have arrived, I noticed that all the people near me started running up the platform to the train stopped there and I followed the crowd to catch that train.
I made it to the Hague eventually, and was overwhelmed by its large and shop-filled train station. There was construction immediately outside the station, but the center was just a block away. The Hague is a good size and ideal for tourists with tons of narrow streets full of shops and cafes spilling out into any available plaza. I had one prinicple target to see in the Hague, namely the Mauritshuis–a palace turned into a museum. If I had the time and temperament to see a second museum, I would track down the MC Escher Museum.
I didn’t head straight to either museum, instead opting to wander some of the central streets, and since it was nearly lunch hour, to track down the “Chinatown” to see if I could find something cheap and delicious to eat first. Though the Chinatown had gates, there wasn’t much of a real draw to it apart from a handful of dimsum restaurants. However, I found a cluster of fast food restaurants around the corner from Chinatown and just south of the main commercial drag. Though I looked long and hard at one Chinese fast food joint and a pizza/doner shop that called itself Los Angeles street food, I ended up getting roasted chicken, an Indonesian curry and rice for an affordable price. The herring sandwich (a local specialty didn’t even tempt me slightly).
While I was eating, it occurred to me that The Hague also means “The Hague,” i.e. those UN bodies for dealing out justice on war criminals or settling international disputes. So I looked up the International Court of Justice on Google Maps. It was a bit out of the center, but the walk was scenic, passing through a semi-enclose shopping mall (dubbed the “Passageway”), past parks, and palaces to reach the Peace Palace. I wouldn’t be able to join a tour, but I appreciated getting a look at it and taking a quick pass through the visitor center. Afterwards, I turned around and headed towards Binenhof, which is the seat of the Netherlands government and in the heart of the center of town.
The Mauritshuis was on the far end of the lake, and though it was a bit pricey, I was almost relieved to find that the museum collection was reasonably small. There was a special exhibit on Rembrandt collecting pieces known to be by the master, those suspected to be fakes, and those thought to be by his students. Oh, and most important, this is the home of Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. It’s nice, but I’m still not particularly interested in ever watching the movie.
The Mauristshuis ticket included admission to the Galerij Prins Willem V, so I cut through the Binenhof (hof in Dutch as in German means a courtyard) to visit the single room gallery containing over 100 paintings stacked floor to ceiling. If I had really wanted to get a tour inside the government buildings, the ProDemo tourist office next door would have been able to handle that. I had read you have to book in advance, but I passed by a group of tourists on their way over. It’s clear that The Hague is the real capital of the Netherlands although Amsterdam is nominally the capital. It was put to me that the rest of the Netherlands goes along with the fiction so as not to hurt the feelings of Amsterdam. I think its more that so many foreigners and tourists just assume Amsterdam is the capital, that the Dutch are too polite to be constantly correcting everyone and thus just went along with it.
It was warm and I had seen my fair share of mobile gelato vendors. I haven’t splurged on ice cream since Germany, and it is good to know that Holland shares the same love of sweets. I was seriously contemplating something cold, sweet, and/or caffeinated, but I wanted to check the movie times in the IMAX first.
Since Spider-Man: Far From Home had a 4-July release in Europe, the long wait was finally over. My plan was to watch it in Leiden in the evening, but since The Hague had an IMAX, I figured it might be worth splurging a little. My timing was basically perfect. There was a showing in 30 minutes, so I headed up the escalators to buy a ticket. I need to check how much I paid for Avengers: End Game in Japan, but wow it was expensive, especially as I had to buy 3D glasses. It was a real IMAX though with an enormous screen, and I satisfied my craving for sweet with an (overpriced) icee at the concession stand. As for the movie itself, there weren’t any real surprises. It was fun and enjoyable, but ultimately probably going to be forgettable. Still, I hope they make another four or five Spider-Man movies.
After the movie, I headed over to Den Haag Centraal to catch the train over to Leiden. Taking an IC train this time, I realized that it takes less than 15 minutes to reach Leiden. I grabbed my rental bike from the parking lot and was about to head home when I spotted an Aldi. I stopped and bought stuff to make dinner. Today was actually C’s boyfriend’s birthday so she was going to be busy with that. It would have been better if there was a big birthday party, but having the house to myself for a night was a decent consolation prize.
I was surprised to find C still home when I got back. The cheesecake she made for the birthday was taking up space in the fridge, but cracked open a beer and package of pretzel sticks to relax with a book after a long day out. I threw a pizza in the oven before she headed out to meet him for ramen. I’m not quite sure how I spent the evening. I ate and watched a youtube video or two and by 10 o’clock I was ready to fall asleep.
| OV Top up (Train ticket = 7.4) | 10.5 |
| Spicy Chicken | 6 |
| Mauritshuis | 15.5 |
| IMAX ticket (incl 1.5 glasses) | 17 |
| Slurpee “Large” | 4 |
| Aldi groceries | 13.3 |
| Total: | 66.3 EUR (517.1 RMB) (USD 75.17) |
Running Total: 11591.1 RMB (USD 1684.85)
Daily Average: 386.4 RMB (USD 56.16)