The Adventures of Saviya and Colin in Europe: May 8, 2009 Den Haag Part 1 of 3

We began the day early with a nice breakfast, than out for the 9:15 am train to Den Haag.

So we had to get on the 915am train to Den Haag, or The Hague as the west calls it. We had to get the notary from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs on our marital status documents we had signed the day before by the US Consulate. Its only an hour on the train, and about 10 minute walk to the Ministry from the train station.
Here we are on the NS train

This process was actually fairly painless. It was also much cheaper than the charges at the US Consul. After our documents were available and legalized, we set out for our hotel. We stayed in a very modern nice place in the heart of the Centrum. The square it sat on was very modern compared to our experiences in Amsterdam.
Here is the outside of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Den Haag.

Inside the ministry, looks like a library

So here is Saviya on the ball in the Hague

We checked out the hotel room, than headed out for some lunch. We sorta picked a random place on the map in the Centrum and ended up in the Noordeinde neighborhood. It just so happens that the Queen and the Royal Paleis Noordeinde is in this neighborhood.

Here is a nice panarama with the statue of Wilhelmuis (king a while back) the Palace, and the street heading north.

here is a picture of the Noordeinde Paleis, and if you look on the roof, there is a flagpole with the flag raised. The flag up means Queen Beatrix is in the Palace and 'business is open'.

The other governmental building we walked by several times was the Binnenhof. This is where the Dutch Parliment has met since the late 1400's. Very cool building and adjoining pools.

We marched around the Centrum and shopped for a few hours, and had lunch at an Irish pub.
We came across a cool shop that had just a bunch of odd stuff. The orange and red cupcake shells you see here are intended to be a kids bath or dog bath, or perhaps a planter, pretty cool. I also like the little toadstool table and chairs. Lots of crap inside as well, we woulda spent money there if we were home, but too hard to bring home, and our apartment doesnt need it.