Just outside of The Hague is a small town in the Netherlands called Wassenaar. Getting there I’m transported into a very lush, very scenic area full of green fields, forests and magnificent homes. Once in the tiny city center, though, it’s a ghost town since it’s a drizzly Sunday morning.
The spirit of Sinterklaas is everywhere here as well…
and all of the sudden I’m feeling very anxious to be home for Christmas. Where has this year gone? I can already see 2012 just inches from my heels. But I’m not quite done yet. Take one last look at another windmill (this one happens to be an art gallery), and in the next post we’re going to break one of my personal records…
Tags: Sinterklaas, the Netherlands, Wassenaar
In the last post I showed you interior photos of the Binnenhof. Here is how the parliament’s complex looks when you round the corner to get the water shots:
I love how you can see the skyscrapers and scaffoldings in the background as a new skyline hovers over The Hague’s city center:
By the time I reach the flag-lined bridge, a flash of downpour hits,
so what is there to do but pop into a nice warm place to wait out the rain…while satisfying a sweet tooth at the same time?
In my defense, when you’re in the Netherlands, it’s practically a crime to not help yourself to some poffertjes, which are like baby pancakes covered with powdered sugar. I order one serving with fresh strawberries. When the plate comes out, it looks like my poffertjes were hit by a snowstorm (note to self, do NOT wear black when attempting to eat these):
It looks like every dentist’s nightmare, but it’s actually not all that sweet. As long as you don’t pour any syrup over it.
From here I make my way to the Peace Palace, or Vredespaleis, which is home to the International Court of Justice (judicial body of the United Nations) and a few other legal institutions. If you have any interest in the law, this complex is one of those places you want to visit to feel a little less cynical and a little more inspired…much like visiting the US Supreme Court. Unfortunately for me, it is closed to tours on this afternoon that I’m there, so I only have some exterior shots:
As I wrap up my report of the visit to the Hague in the next entry and post photos from the street, I’ll also take you to a cool museum that used to be a palace. But for now, I’ll take you to the dinner I mentioned from a few days ago. I’m finally breaking out that Chanel Paris Byzance cardigan coat that actually doesn’t photograph well (it looks much more shimmery in person) and frankly makes me feel like a Michelin man–maybe I shouldn’t have had all those pancakes:
I think maybe the coat looks better unbuttoned. But Michelin man or not, dinner beckons, and here’s another gratuitous shot of the new clutch having a martini 
:
Dinner is fabulous. Appetizer is mackerel tartare lightly seasoned with vintage soy sauce,
followed by grilled white fish on a bed of potato and beet puree–
which sounds simple enough, but I’ve never had better fish in my life. It’s cooked to perfection, and even the mushrooms are seasoned like no other. I’m not a true foodie, and my definition of gastronomy is purely subjective at this point, but at least now I know how fish should be cooked. This dish is that good.
To round it all off, dessert is funky, fun, and delicious. I wish I had taken notes when the maître d’ came by to explain the plate to me. All I remember now is that the underlining flavor is hazlenut, the tiny droplets of ice cream are pistachio-flavored, and the caramel sauce under the sprinkles of white chocolate simply melts in my mouth.
Yikes, it’s going to be rough to go back to my own cooking after this trip!
Tags: Binnenhof, Peace Palace, Poffertjes, The Hague, the Netherlands, Vredespaleis
It was a dark and stormy night…so the expression goes, but that was my first thought upon pulling up past this sign in pitch dark, with the wind howling outside the car:
Monster, eh? Seemed fitting enough (and yes, I took that photo the next day when the storm clouds blew over), but a few meters later it’s Ter Heijde that I’ve reached for my final destination:
A sleepy beach resort in the province of South Holland of around 700 strong (mostly retired people it seems), it has a smaller population than my high school graduating class. I can’t wait to explore it in the morning, but for now, I just want to get to my room, unpack, and see if I can’t get something to drink downstairs. But except for the marine-themed sculptures all around the hotel…
there’s not much happening so I take my clutch back upstairs and run my bath.
Just after sunrise, I manage to catch the early lights above the roofs…
and head down to breakfast. This hotel, a bit in the middle of nowhere, is supposedly run by a top chef, so I can’t wait for the gastronomic dinner planned for tonight. I have a long day ahead of me so I’m going to have a breakfast of champions this morning:
Indulge me, but I love taking pictures of presentations…almost as much as sitting down to a fresh squeezed glass of orange juice…
and funky blends of tea…
So after my big breakfast I head for the beach; thank goodness for the parka because I can feel the windchill factor shooting through my core while trying to stay vertical in the strong gusts of winds:
The dunes here are unobstructed by any shoreline construction (thank goodness!),
and the beach is lined instead by fishermen enjoying the morning sun–er, partial sun…
Walking in the sand in my clunky winter boots against a tough wind for about half an hour feels like a decent workout for my heart this morning, so now it’s back to the car to head out to The Hague. More on that in the next post, but here are a few final shots of what’s all around Ter Heijde…lots and lots of dunes and greenhouses. I really should try to come back to the Netherlands in the spring when the flower markets are in full bloom…
Tags: Monster, Ter Heijde, the Netherlands
This time last year my Belgian host family celebrated an American Thanksgiving by going to bed at 9pm so that we could be out the door by 3:30am for Black Friday shopping. After that experience I grumbled to myself that my favorite holiday had become too commercialized and that perhaps real traditions were going the way of dinosaurs. Fast forward one year later and I am packing for a 2.5 hours ride to the Netherlands, all the while homesick for just a taste of that Thanksgiving spirit. Perhaps it’s all the emails from work with people wishing me a happy Thanksgiving that’s making me a bit wistful. And perhaps the devilish shopaholic in me is wondering what great sales I’m missing at home!
Most of all, I miss preparing a big dinner (what a delightful excuse for indulging in food). But I can’t really complain too much about food either–see last post. In fact, a few days ago I was gifted these stone crab claws…
which I whipped up into a batch of crab eggrolls, even if the crabs were already delicious on their own:
Anyway, back to packing. It’s cold enough here now for me to test drive this very heavy Paris Byzance cardigan-coat…
but depending on the weather forecast I’ll see if it’s the brown 2.55 bag…
or the red timeless clutch that will accompany me on this trip:
The flash makes the bag look so garish, but you can see it matches much better in real life, even from this terribly fuzzy non-flash photo:
So I’ll be back in a few days with hopefully some great photos from a very desolate place; fingers crossed it won’t rain the entire time.
As you all sit down to dinner tonight and take a few minutes to think about the people who can’t make it home for the holiday because they’re serving their country, I’d like to rekindle the real tradition of treating every day as if it were Thanksgiving Day. Happy turkey feasting and let the sale season begin !
Tags: 2.55 bag, Black Friday, Thanksgiving, the Netherlands, timeless clutch
Someone gave me a tip about Zeeland, which is a province in the Southwest region of the Netherlands, and it turns out to be a lovely visit. Almost fifty percent of this province is under water (chunks of it are below sea level) so it makes sense that its coat of arms shows lions rising from the water with the Latin phrase luctor et emergo, or I struggle and I emerge. I love this as a personal motto.
My first stop is at the little municipality of Terneuzen, population 55,000. Sounds small? It actually is one of the most populous in all of Zeeland. In the above photo, I am walking toward the port, which happens to be third in size after Amsterdam and Rotterdam (where I took you to last year). Legend has it that this is the home of the Flying Dutchman. I walk around the town center a bit and run into this funny sign near a row of restaurants–it is a menu of fines (I believe that’s 75 euros for disorderly conduct or peeing in public):
Besides its waterway commerce, tourism is a big part of Zeeland. But here in Terneuzen I only find tourists scattering to other parts of Zeeland, so I do same. It’s time to cross the toll bridge and head over to Middleburg, a peninsula capital. Immediately I am charmed…
This town harks back to the 9th century and enjoyed great success during the Dutch Golden Age. It did not fare as well during the bombings of the second world war, but reconstruction has revived it into a great tourist stop. Here you can walk among old merchant houses converted into restaurants, museums or new storehouses along and around the canals…
You must know by now how much I love looking at front doors and inside windows for signs of lives so different from mine…
…yet possibly so familiar (and by that I mean the name–these pics are for my family )…
A few more shots of a very tranquil Middleburg and tomorrow we’ll tackle another town:
Tags: Middleburg, Terneuzen, the Netherlands, Zeeland
