Sat Feb 11

Saturday February 11 - Den Haag

We bought a crate of beer this
afternoon on the way home for A$12.40....yes, German beer....24
bottles....'Warfteiner'.....euro9.99 on special. Amazing!
Oh, there was a three euro deposit added, but still....incredible! Want to know more? A crate of Heinekin was even less!

We received mail from Ziggo, our
cable company that explains that we'll probably be connected on Wednesday. We also get an HD thingummyjig for our
television, but I don't think this TV is going to be using it since it is very
nice but the old squarish shape. I plan
on buying the biggest TV possible (OK, not really 'that' big) when we have the
house chosen and I intend watching the London Olympics live - all of it! - and
things like the BAFTA awards which are on TV tomorrow night from London (but
we'll be away visiting the south).

We saw our first Dutch fire
today. Not the one in a fireplace but a
real fire in a building. OK, it was a
small fire in a sort of kiosk-type building at Kijkduin, but it had two police
vehicles arriving separately (the first one at ridiculous high speed) and
followed by two separate fire appliances, then a fire supervisor's 4WD. The little shop was selling fish and chips,
and it appears that it was a fat fire that got out of control. It influenced a neighbouring shop/stall and
it was all happening at Kijkduin, one of the prettier dune beach areas south of
Scheveningen.

To get there we took a bus from
right outside our apartment building (#23) and it took almost 50 minutes to get
there, going in a giant U shaped route through Voorburg, then Rijswijk,
swinging back towards the sea and finally arriving at the terminus in
Kijkduin. It was a beautifully sunny
morning and a balmy -2C at the beach, and the North Sea once again (just like
the other day) was beautifully calm.
There would have been no way in Hell that Rene would have done the trip
if he got to choose, but I encouraged him to do it because we have to become
familiar with our locale, and we had nothing else to do - I've already
mentioned Dutch real estate folk don't do weekends.
We had a lovely coffee and a slice
of apple cake at a sandwich restaurant which looked marvellous. It was still not quite 12 and we didn't feel
like a proper lunch, but I'd love to come back and try something from their
menu - what was coming out of the kitchen looked fabulous! After a walk, the fire excitement and
deciding that Kijkduin's real attraction was in the summer months, we walked
towards a tram line around 1500m away - of course one had to negotiate slippery
paths, so whilst sounding not that far away, we approached the walking with a
certain degree of caution.

We caught our first Randstatrail
tram - a sort of light railway - which took us into the Centrum and delivered
us to the underground Grotemarkt station.
It was our first time in the station (we had walked above and around it
often) and I have to say it is very nicely designed. It continues the
underground tram line under the city hall (there's the Spui Station) and comes
above ground by the time it reaches Den Haag Centraal Station. I remember it taking ages to build and of
course ran over time and over budget, but it frees the streets above and is a
seriously impressive people mover since the trams are virtually 3 carriages
long as opposed to 2.5 of an ordinary tram, and I think wider with 2+2 width (a
regular tram in 2+1 wide). I think there
are plans to put another route into the city with this higher capacity light
rail tram, but platforms and other alterations have to be done, but it is
planned to happen soon.

We went to 'Out of Australia' shop
to buy a gift for Maike's birthday. What
do you buy a 19 year old girl? Ear
muffs, of course, made from Australian merino wool - very smart and so
practical too!

Next we went to the City Hall
library (bibliotheek) and used their free wifi for both of our computers, and I
did my emails and some stuff, read about the floods out West in Queensland
(poor St George!) and felt sort of connected for a short while. That rain out west just doesn't seem to want
to quit.

On the way home Rene checked
timetables and bought tickets for the train tomorrow. We plan on leaving here at 11:24 on the bus, an
11:54 train to Tilberg then a 1:15 bus to near the house of my brother in law
in Bladel. This may well be the only
time we use public transport to go anywhere distant because we will have a car
when we know where we are going to live.

....and that's about all folks!

Oh, forgot, we saw a green parrot,
wild, in the back garden of a house we looked at yesterday. Apparently this is not an unusual sight these
days, but it was cute looking but SO out of place.

(4 hrs. later) Just watched a
concert by Adele from the Royal Albert Hall recorded last September. It was on NED3, without ads, and was bloody
brilliant. Love that girl!