Peace Palace and Blue Pottery

Today we took another trip outside Amsterdam to visit The Hague and Delft. They are located about an hour's train ride from the city. Our first stop was The Hague, Netherland's third largest city and home to the country's parliament. Since we only had a few hours we walked to the Center of town to view some of the buildings and just poke around.

                                                   Enjoying the scenery from the train

The city is different than Amsterdam, more modern, taller buildings,with wider boulevards and less people.

In the City Center is the Binnenhof Parliment Complex which overlooks a large pond right in the Center of town. The Prime Minister's office is there as well as the two house Parliment.

                                                       The Parliment Buildings

Queen Beatrix has her palace just down the street.

We then made our way to the most photographed building in The Hague, the Peace Palace which is home to the International Court of  Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. These bodies adjudicate disputes between nations as well as prosecute war criminals with the latest case being one of Slovaban Milosivec of the former Yugoslavia. Unfortunately court was in session so we couldn't tour the place which looked to be quite the building.

                                                   The Peace Palace


 Instead we did a audio tour of the exhibits in the Visitors Center.It gave  a good overview of the building as well as the beginnings of a search for peace over war. One interesting fact was that Andrew Carnegie, the American industrialist, gave the money to build The Peace Palace as a gift to the further understanding of building a peaceful world. I also like one of his sayings, " A rich man who dies with money, dies in disgrace." Guess that is one of the reasons he gave his money away.


In the afternoon we took the tram to Delft, a small town close by that is famous for Delft pottery which is hand made there. It is a really pretty town with lots of churches and markets. We strolled around, stopped for something to eat which of course was fish as it is delicious here. Don finally got to buy his smoked herring from a stall at the market. There are herring stalls all over the Netherlands as it is a popular snack food. I don't get that!

                                                     The market square in Delft

                                                      Mmmm.This herring is delicious!

I did buy a small piece of Delft ware that wasn't made in China. It has to be authenticated with a certificate to show that it is not a fake.

                                             Delft pottery which is typically blue and white.


Making our way back to Amsterdam we passed many fields of colourful flowers even though the weather is getting colder they are still growing. It seems that everyone here buys fresh flowers on a regular basis from the many flower stalls. We always see people walking with loads of fresh flowers.

At the market...

  

                                      From the fields.....

We decided to end the night at Cafe Bern, an old cafe which is always full and only offers a limited menu of fondue. We ordered the house special, fondue and bread as well as steak which we cooked at the table in a herb sauce. It was very tasty and something different than we usually eat.