Den Haag

Day 45: All Caught Up! 

This morning 7:30 a.m. came way too early. I dragged myself out of bed to shower and get ready for the day. Thank goodness Brittany got coffee yesterday because that literally saved me, the only problem with that was I was hot the rest of the day. I didn't want to wear the typical winter clothes so I put on a dress and only took a sweater to Den Haag, which is always colder than Leiden. Whoops! I didn't freeze, but was a little chilled. Our first stop of the day was the Peace Palace. It was so pretty. Sorry there aren't any pictures of the inside as sometimes important people are there and they don't like their pictures taken. We got to sit in the ICJ and the Permanent Court of Arbitration and hear all about the history. I felt so bad for our tour guide because she was wearing heels and her feet were killing her. At one point she was dancing on the stairs as she told us the story about the statue of Christ made from the melt down of guns. 

This is what the Peace Palace looked like when we got there. The fog was really bad. 

This is what it looked like when we came out! 

After the Peace Palace we got a surprise.....LUNCH MONEY!!! Kidding that wasn't the surprise. We got to go this amazing Panorama from like the late 1800's. I am using that vaguely, I can't remember when it was done exactly. I imagined myself in a long dress with white gloves, hair all curled and done up with flowers in it, much like Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Man it would have been cool to live back then. Any way back to the Panorama, it was incredible, hand painted and it looked almost real. It was basically like stepping back in time. There was also paintings that were done by the same painter who had done the panorama and I fell in love. You could feel the emotion in every painting. My favorite was a sunset over the red sea. Sorry there aren't any pictures because it wasn't allowed. After that we were sent off to find lunch. I was craving chinese food, but shouldn't have been. We ate some nasty chinese food and had horrible tea. It tasted like fish water! BLAGH! It was disgusting!!!! 

FISH TEA!!!

After lunch we were shown a more modern part of Den Haag that is hidden and guess what we found??? 

SALVATORE!!!! Brittany and I were really excited. 

After this we boogied over to the Knights' Hall where we got a tour and see where the queen sits. My favorite thing was the roof, it reminded me of the movie, "How To Train Your Dragon". I kept waiting for Toothless or some Vikings to show up, but they never did. 

Here is the outside of the Knights' Hall. 

This is where the Queen gives a really important speech, that I don't remember what it is called. Whoops. Doesn't it remeind you of "How to Train Your Dragon"? 

The chandeliers underexposed. I really liked them for some reason. 

Me outside of the Knights' Hall. 

A video of us walking in Den Haag:

After we got back from Den Haag Brittany and I decided to be complete bums and got all caught up on Vampire Diaries. UGH!!!! I am so upset that we have to wait until we find out what happens. The last episode was SOO intense! There are so many things that I want answered. After we finished the rest of the season we went out and said happy birthday to Maya and then Brittany, Mom, Caryn and I escaped the craziness to get some food. We went for turkish pizzas at a new place, which were not as good as the ones from our usual guy, but I got a coke which made me feel better. We came back and I read some more of my book after getting my credit card fixed!