The Hague, Netherlands

The Hague

Yes!  Finally some place I’ve heard of! The Hague (Den Haag) is a city in the Netherlands 45 mins from Amsterdam. It is the judicial capital of the world as it houses the international court of justice and the international criminal court.

Our first stop in The Hague was Madurodam. Madurodam was an amazing place as it displayed miniature models of famous buildings in the Netherlands, some of which we had already seen. It was also interactive with many games and learning. I highly recommend going here before anything else.

First, we saw a huge model of the Rijksmuseum with every intricate detail like the stained-glass paintings and arches and posters.

What was also really cool was that there were moving objects like cars and buses and jeeps and vans. There were are also moving canal boats in the water which were attached to a sort of conveyor belt. There was also an opening bridge like the one on the Amstel river.

What deserves another paragraph is the moving fair with things like roller coaster and a Ferris wheel and even a carousel. After putting in a coin to see the show the different things light up individually and then all start together.

Running throughout the entire park was a series of train lines with different types of trains like cargo and intercity and metro. At the Amsterdam Schipol airport there were planes taxing on the ground. It was awesome and my heaven.

One more amazing interactive thing was the loading of cargo. You had to operate a mechanical arm and transport cargo blocks onto a ship and then the ship would sail off. We once dropped the block into the water and had to quickly fish it out! We probably got fired.

After we finished the park we moved on to the beach. The beach was very clean except for some cigarette buts. We touched the North Sea and my sister even played kabbadi with the spotless water. Sometimes she just loses her mind! I mean come on!

A surprise came next and one I would recommend to all visitors of The Hague. The Ferris Wheel. The Hague eye (copyright pending). You could see miles from it: The North Sea, Hague main square and the beach and promenade dotted with shops. Right next to it was something that could give you a heart attack: The Bungee Tower. A person was taken up in a crane and then dropped from a height into the cold water below. We saw a man do it and people who were talking about trying it kept quiet after seeing it in action.

This building really excited me. It was the ICJ or International Court of Justice. It was formed in 1898 upon the request made by Czar Nicholas II in order to kept peaceful relations with the Soviets hostile neighbours. It has solved cases for the worst crimes: genocide, war crimes and human rights violations.

The parliament of the Netherlands is situated in The Hague and some parts of the complex are open to the people. We went to the museum there (cause we love museums) and saw some of the best works of art. One of the most notable paintings over there was the girl with the pearl earring.

The last thing we saw was the Passage, the oldest shopping mall in the Netherlands. Some bright chap thought it would be good if people had a covered market to patient customers from snow and rain. It has a wide range of shops and is a shopper’s dream stop with things like clothes, stationery, book stores and electronic equipment.

That’s all for the judicial capital of the world.

Catch the full series of Europe: The Journey on this blog page.