Den Haag – Koninginnedag

Queens day (Koninginnedag) is a crazy day in The Netherlands and Maaike and I spent it in The Hague.

Mostly the country turns into one massive car-boot sale. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best, but I did manage to pick up some bargains!

I bought Rummikub for $2 (she tried to charge me 1, but I bargained her up), and a fleece blanket for $2, but I bargained up to $3.50 or something. There’s nothing quite like reverse bargaining for messing with Dutch minds ;)

Dutch Oddity #3 – Raw Herring

I also tried raw herring – which is a very Dutch thing to do… They even eat it with cream. Which is definitely odd.

Not tooooo bad actually.

Went for a wander around town with Catherine, Floor and Jip (college friends of Maaike’s) – and along the beach called Scheveningen.

Interestingly, after WW2 one way of catching Germans who were pretending to be Dutch was to get them to try to pronounce Scheveningen. Basically it’s impossible unless you’re properly Dutch.

Here’s a picture of the beach at scheveningen! (lots of kite surfing happening)