Den Haag, Netherlands

Ok, all we've been told about the town of Den Haag is that it is the political capital of the Netherlands. It is where the Dutch Parliament and the International Court of Justice are located. Den Haag is just a 15 minute train ride from Leiden we headed there after the tulip fields. We had no clue where to go once we arrived. As we looked at the map in the train station Skyler saw an advertisement for a mexican food restaurant. It sounded good so we climbed in a cab and headed that direction.

Much to our surprise we ended up on the beach!! We didn't even know Den Haag was near the beach! It felt like a whole different country. The mexican food restaurant wasn't open for lunch so we walked along the beach front where there were hundreds of adorable resaurants. The beach area of Den Haag is actually called Scheveningen. As you can see to the left the restaurants are literally on the beach. We stopped at Cocomo Beachclub. Jared, Skyler, and Sam are sitting at the table nearest the water in the picture above.


After lunch we moved to an area of the restaurant consisting of huge, bright bean bags. You can barely see them in the lower left corner of this picture. It was the most relaxing hour we've had since we've been here. We ordered coffee and took naps under the sun next to the beach. The biggest factor on our enjoyment was the sun. Only on rare occasions have we seen the sun and the weather was predicted to be rainy. It was perfect! After our moment of relaxation, we took a tram to this place called Madurodam. Madurodam is a minature replica of all of Holland. I really can't tell you more than that because once we arrived and saw the price we decided our time was better spent back at the beach of Scheveningen.

The tram dropped us back off at the beautiful hotel you see in the picture to the left. Across from the hotel was a casino. Although Skyler has gambled before, Jared has never been in a Casino. He's too hard on himself and can feel such intense regret that he has always had the concern of losing money. However, many players have been making money over here at the casino's, so Jared was tempted. Samantha and I decided we'd walk around the beach for an hour or so while the boys took only their ID's and 50 euro's each. When we met up at our meeting point the boys told us they ended down. Of course I knew Jared was going to joke with me when he came back, and he finally told me that he actually ended up 110 euro's!! That's $136.53! I can't decide if I'm happy that he won the the money or not, because now he has more confidence and the desire to go back to the casino. The picture of Skyler and Jared is a little hard to see due to the lighting, but they are holding up their winnings.

Before heading to dinner at the mexican food restaurant, we took a nice walk out on the pier and along the beach. Although, we didn't see anything Den Haag is known for, we really enjoyed our day on the beach.