Sunday Feb 5

Sunday
February 5 2012 - Den Haag Nederlands

We have
just spent the first 24 hours in our rented temporary apartment in a very nice
area, Benoordenhout, just north east of the Centrum. The streets are wider, frontages larger and
the cars suggest that much money resides in this area.

We haven't
got everything working right - and the heating is one of them. When I reckon the radiators ought to be
shovelling out heat they are cold, then one side heats and not the other, and
the first time we were here yesterday morning it was SO sunny that the rooms
were actually too hot. Today it is fine but cloudy.

Another
awful inconvenience is the lack of cable (it'll be very soon, but how long
nobody knows). With TV comes internet,
so we are dipping back into the Ice Age with cold outside and nothing to stare
at but the walls of the cave! I miss
just not having the net, but I'll get over it.

Walking
around the neighbourhood in the snow this morning we happened upon a delicious
looking shop selling not only great coffee and cakes but also cheeses (its main
purpose) and delightfully presented delicatessen items. The lovely lass behind the counter told me
that the evening temperature two nights ago had been -17C, the coldest in Den
Haag for 24 years (oh joy of joys, they waited until I arrived to start
breaking records again!)

We have one
bedroom with a bathroom/laundry leading from it, a toilet off the hallway and a
living room with a kitchen (small but adequate enough). The building complex dates from the early
1930's and has lots of fascinating details that evoke another era.

Yesterday
(Saturday) we moved from the hotel into the apartment, immediately headed for
Albert Hijn (Coles/Woolworths equivalent) to load up on things we didn't need
in a serviced hotel room. Once back home we had lunch, then got a bus to Den
Haag Centraal Station to head to Utrecht for the evening. The weather dictated train rather than car,
so by chance we met our friend Isabelle also heading to Utrecht for the
weekend. Normally she drives her
Porsche, but the weather was not suitable, so she lowered her standards and
slummed it on the train. She was about to text that she was in the middle of
the train when we just happened upon her by coincidence. Due to the weather the
fast InterCity trains weren't operating, plus the Sneltrains were also not
operating, so we were in a very new Sprinter train that proceeded to stop at
every station between the two main points (around 11 compared to only one for
the InterCity).

When we
arrived at Utrecht we had not only a full train from Den Haag but even more pax
squeezed onto the train because at Gouda we came across hundreds trying to get
to Utrecht because the Amsterdam/Urecht line wasn't working. I'd forgotten the
occasional cockup that so personifies Dutch Rail.

Isabelle is
Paul's sister, and Paul is Rene's best friend since his days at university.
Isobel has been living in Den Haag for 10 years, but Paul has always seemed to
have lived in or around Utrecht. He
does, however, work in a town near The Hague and drives there every day. Once
nearly at our old watering hole (Ledig Erf) Isobel headed to her brother's to
drop off an overnight bag, and we headed for what turned out to be an extremely
busy cafe.

The Ledig
Erf changed hands just as we left at the end of 2004 after 26 years in the same
hands. A couple of years ago we came
across the changes to decor and clientele so it was no big surprise to see the
physical changes, but the clientele to me seemed younger. None of our old friends were there (no, we
hadn't told them we'd be coming this weekend) so Rene and I had a beer then
Isobel and Paul arrived. It was lovely
to see Paul again, and Rene really seemed to light up when he walked into the
pub. Several drinks later we left for an
Italian restaurant across the canal close to Paul's apartment. Would you believe Rene spotted a lady having
dinner with friends who had the shop beneath the apartment we had rented for a
week two years ago. As we left I popped over to say hello - it's a small country!

Coffee at
Paul's apartment before heading off was very nice indeed, and we have temporary
custody of a Nespresso machine courtesy of Isabelle (Paul had been repairing it
for her). We left the two of them to go
to an over 40's disco and we went off into the cold towards Utrecht
Centraal. We walked and walked and as we
were perhaps 800m from the station a passing bus stopped and the driver
beckoned us aboard for the final warm ride to the station. Lovely gesture!

The return
train was again an all stops and took an hour, and the midnight bus from the
slush covered bus station seemed never to come, but finally a ten minute
journey dropped us near home and the final trudge through the snow to our
handsome building. This freezing weather is to last at least until next
weekend. *^*#@&!

Tomorrow
morning we have an appointment to become registered in Den Haag now that we
have an address. Then Rene contacts the
removalists and we become legal enough to have the container imported and not
returned back to Oz. Now to find a
permanent home - not that easy a job, but we are getting to know so much more
about this small fascinating city of 500 000 freezing folk.