I met tante (auntie) Jos that morning, she was very welcoming and showed tremendous hospitality. She even planned out where to bring me for the two days! After serving me coffee and some Dutch snacks (a platter of stroopwafels, kretenbroodje, holland windmill cookies, some unidentified cake), she told me some things about Den Haag (The Hague) before we set off for the day. It turns out that Jos' grandfather was an architect and many of the buildings in The Hague still retained the designs which her grandfather has come up with. In one of the walking tour guide book for The Hague, her grandfather's name was mentioned and she took much pride in it.
We got to The Hague and it coincided with a half marathon in the city. It was nice and motivating to see people running a race. It motivated me to run more in Tilburg. So anyway, we went to Mauritshuis museum. It's a really small (3 storey) museum which has an interior that looked like a palace. There were huge stairways and beautiful intricate details on the hand railings. The ceiling was covered in a colourful fresco and all the rooms were filled with art pieces of famous Dutch artists such as Jan Steen, Rembrandt and Bosch. There was one particularly interesting art piece which depicted gods having sex. Venus was having sex with Mars while Jupiter wanted to be next in line so he recruited the help from Cupid while Zeus watches in one corner. Something like that. The painting, though small, is full of details, vivid colours and deemed too erotic for public display until the 20th century.
Mauritshuis museum
The erotic painting
Three of us next to the museum!
After the museum, they took me on a walking tour around The Hague and she explained to me what ceremonies took place, where the queen stood when she makes announcements, how the horses would trot into position and how the guards would march in front of the parliament place. She also showed me the buildings, explained how the older buildings had round glass corners while the newer ones simply had squarish corners.
Then we had lunch at this shopping centre which is quite "atas". It carried luxurious brands and used to be so expensive, people didn't dare to step in and the shopping centre had to carry less intimidating brands to attract patrons. I ordered an uitsmijster. It's fried eggs with roast beef on bread. It was quite yummy.
We went to this museum called Panorama Mesdag. It's famous for a panorama view of Scheveningen (the beach area) and the painting stretches 120metres and forms a circle! It's 14m wide, and when you stand in the middle, they block the view of the top and bottom of the canvas, so you can only see the painting and it looks as though you're looking at a real view of the beach. In between the viewing centre platform and the painting, there was a pile of sand which feels like the sand on the beach so it blends in with the painting making it even more realistic.
After The Hague, we went to Scheveningen to see the beach. We went to this super luxurious beach hotel called Steigenberger Kurhaus. (http://www.kurhaus.nl/homeenglish.html)
It's like 400-500 euros a night. Wanted to have coffee but the cafe closes at 5pm and we were 5 mins late. So we took a walk along the beach and ended up at a men's only social club. It's a really old building that has stood there since more than 100 years ago. And we saw a choir group of old ladies dressed in traditional Dutch wear! They look so cute together I had to take a photo with them.
The kurhaus
Dutch ladies!
We went for dinner at a seafood restaurant but the dinner was only average. Maybe because I didn't really order the right dishes. And we ended the night after having some tea in the living room back at their house.
The next morning, we had breakfast at 9am. I helped to set the table, bring out the food and it was a sumptous spread! There were 3-4 types of cheese, 3 different hams, coffee, tea and juice, soft-boiled eggs, toasts, kretenbroodje met maseipen (raisin bread with marzipan), hagelslag (traditional rice chocolate added to bread), it was great! After breakfast, I showed oom Frank how to use windows movie maker to do basic editing for videos. He was so glad I showed him that software and I'm glad I could contribute too.
Soon after, we went to Rotterdam city. It was a beautiful bright sunny day and I was glad because we went up the Euromast and got a clear view of the city. It was windy but the view was worth it because it really showed me how big their port is! Jos told me which buildings are for what and I was trying to remember at least some buildings. We then went to Boijmans museum. It's a rather big museum with classical and modern art work. There were international classics like Joan Miro, Jan Steen, Rembrandt, Cezanne and a few more, and there were modern art which we didn't explore because we got tired after an hour. I like Joan Miro. Very strange but interesting. Then oom Frank drove past the houses like looked like cubes tilted at an angle and it was very interesting! Jos and I walked past the Erasmus bridge (also known as the swan bridge) and explored the American-Rotterdam Lijn building (now it's New York Hotel). It used to be a building where ships left Rotterdam for America. After that we went to the city centre and they showed me the main shopping street. There wasn't much to see in the city so we ended up in the mall, having coffee and pastries before they sent me to the central station to catch a train back to Tilburg.
From the Euromast.
In a cafe in Euromast. They even have hotel rooms called Heaven, moon and stars.
The cube houses
Outside National ArchitectuuralInstitutie
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