This morning, I woke up at about 6 am. The sun was already rising. There is not much night time this far north in summer it would seem.
Mitchell and I had agreed to try breakfast this morning but until he had risen, I decided to take two laps around our park. One lap around the water and the second lap around the block. It was very quiet at 7 am in Europe. Most people seem to rise much later in the day. As I walked around the park called Oosterpark, I came to the realisation that “Oost” means “East” in Dutch. I realised this after I saw a sign saying “Oosterdok” as yesterday I saw a sign saying “westerdok”.
On my travels around the park, I was asked for a cigarette lighter by a few people who I suspect still remained there from a long night that they had beforehand. I had no lighter to offer them.
Mitchell messaged me when he was up and I met him for breakfast at The Generator. Today we had actually got up in time to have breakfast, unlike yesterday.
Mitchell presented me with some options about the plan for the day and I think we were both in agreement that a trip out of Amsterdam would be pretty cool. We decided to visit The Hague. Before this trip though, we did some laundry. Tomorrow we check out early and travel to Luxembourg and for a few nights we will only be staying one night at a time on a walking journey which should make laundry a bit more difficult. So best get that done now to allow for that.
While we waited for laundry to complete the day started to get busy down below our room. As I sat quietly, gazing out over the skate park from the hostel window, there were many activities taking place. Skateboards hit concrete below on a regular interval, thump of balls bouncing on the court and the occasional trill of bike bells. Behind it all, distant church bells rang out which was likely for Sunday mass.
We departed for The Hague at 11:30am. Catching the tram to Centraal Station and the Intercity (IC) train to the destination. Trip time was 90 min total from our hostel but only about 60 minutes of train travel.
We wandered towards the beach in The Hague aiming to see if we could have a swim. To get there, we wandered off of the highway and through some delightful neighbourhoods. The Hague also has canals.
Just last week, we knew that Donald Trump was in The Hague at a NATO convention. To get there, we needed to take a quick shortcut which took us through a nice forest park area.
We wandered past the World Forum which hosted this event and took a few photos.
Of note, we walked past a building which was the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia. I did some reading on this. It was very interesting.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is a United Nations court of law dealing with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990’s. Since its establishment in 1993, it has irreversibly changed the landscape of international humanitarian law and provided victims an opportunity to voice the horrors they witnessed and experienced.
In its precedent-setting decisions on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the Tribunal has shown that an individual’s senior position can no longer protect them from prosecution.
It has now shown that those suspected of bearing the greatest responsibility for atrocities committed can be called to account, as well as that guilt should be individualised, protecting entire communities from being labelled as “collectively responsible”.
The Tribunal has laid the foundations for what is now the accepted norm for conflict resolution and post-conflict development across the globe, specifically that leaders suspected of mass crimes will face justice. The Tribunal has proved that efficient and transparent international justice is possible.
It is so interesting to read these types of international endeavours. Countries in Europe so often (historically) go to war against one another. And other countries play such important roles in diplomacy in exiting those conflicts.
We pasted many embassies on our walk through the city. We saw embassies for Mexico, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Kingdom of Jordan, etc.
We ventured on and found the beach! Before walking across the sand towards the wharf we had some lunch in a nice beach restaurant.
We probably were not expecting such a turnout that we found at the beach. It was a mighty sight. There were people foot miles and we probably didn’t realise how far this goes until we got up high to see just how far it goes.
As we walked closer to the wharf we paddled in the water and looked at shells. I have officially stepped foot in the North Sea.
As we got to the wharf Mitchell took a swim in the North Sea. There were large shipping container ships behind him as he swam. As he gazed to the south, as he was in the above image I didn’t realise that he was looking at the wharf. There was a bungee jumper about to jump from a crane.
Ultimately, they chickened out, but the next jumper went for it.
We went up the wharf for a closer look and to perhaps consider the SkyView Ferris Wheel as we called it. We took some pictures of the view of the surrounding beach. Quite the view.
The Ferris wheel was €11 each and there was very little wait time so we gave it a go. Mitchell shared a selfie he took of us from the top of the wheel. I’ll add that below.
After this we got an ice cream and walked back to the train station of The Hague. It was approaching 6pm, not that is a great indicator here as to when the fun is over. But tomorrow is an early travel day and we need to pack.
On arriving back at Amsterdam Central station I visited a souvenir shop and then also in Albert Heijn super mart to get some dinner and a small snack for tomorrow’s breakfast. My selection came to about €10, which is much better than the restaurants around the place.
We are off to Luxembourg tomorrow which will be an adventure. Mostly a travel day though so maybe not so much to report.