Badhotel Scheveningen The Hague

... Piotr, Ana's boyfriend, spoke perfect english so 2 days of charades were avoided. They took us out to the canal country near the Belguim border where the windmills aren't just there for the tourists for a Polish feast. A magnificent day topped off with a quick dip in a canal and a perfect sunset.

The next day, we said goodbye and moved on to the home of prostitutes and stoned American kids... Amsterdam!

... it was a great night otherwise and I had fun. Good way to kick off the weekend. Saturday, after sleeping in, I tried to finish some of the small things that needed fixing around the apartment. Unfortunately this included spraypainting the back of our fireplace (it doesn't work). The previous tennants had pasted a piece of carpet on top of the brick, and then spilt paint all over it. So i decided to spray paint the ...

... crafts, fresh squeezed orange juice, breads, and more of the same - and different things. We don't feel rushed; we just enjoy ourselves, soaking up the atmosphere. Some of us buy some things.... Shoe shopping is the most time consuming, but Roel doesn't mind - the rain has stopped and he looks up into the skies, then falls asleep. Eventually we come to the end of the market ... what to do next? No vacation to Amsterdam is ...

... crossing over from Germany into the Netherlands, our hostel was easy to find from the station. We were so tired and our bags were so hevay, we didn't notice the red lights flanking the street outside our hostel...Straight away as we entered the hostel, we got talking to Bronwyn a lovely, bubbly properly British lass from Manchester and Patricia, a charming and polite German girl who was living in New Zealand. This was a good sign. We had made friends already and ...

... life. Every painting was so beautiful and I must say that there was hardely anything that wasn't spectacular. After that we went to the Heineken Experience. This brewery tour included 3 drinks and a bunch of different interactive experiences. The 'Being a bottle' ride was great as was the duelling dj booths at either end of one of the rooms. It was fun to use their per made sounds to make like a dj and laugh at the people across from us who ...

... home to the International Court of Justice and also the International Court of Arbitration. The Peace Palace was built from 1899 with a bequest from American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. It features spectacular gifts from many member nations, including oak panelling from the US, tapestries from Japan, a statue from Argentina and Chile ...

... and on Tuesdays the public is invited inside to hear the organ playing. The church itself is gorgeous and to sit listening to the music was a wonderful experience - not very time-consuming but wonderful all the same. Very charming. More walking - this city is so beautiful to walk through - and we arrived at Amstelkring, a hidden Catholic church from the 1600's. I find it almost incomprehensible walk through buildings which were built at a ...

Now this city was cool. I have never seen a place like Amsterdam. So laid back and relaxed. Mellow people, art, coffee shops, and great people watching. You'll always find something strange going on and it really gets lively at night. We also took a trip over to the tulip farms and large floral gardens. Talk about beautiful. We saw windmills, wooden shoe carvings, and tons of colorful flowers.

... it was great to spend the middle of the day under blue skies by the sand and sea – especially as one of the principal drawbacks of choosing to live in Europe for me is suffering from beach withdrawal.

On our way back to the station from the beach we both liked the sound of Madurodam, a miniature village full of Dutch landmarks. It was billed as a great attraction for the kiddies, but forget about them, it kept us two ...