Land of the cyclists

Hallo,

Greetings from the capital of International Justice. Around a month ago I started working here at the international criminal tribunals and have been busy cycling around and eating cheese ever since. Den Haag is definitely an idyllic small big city. There seems to be everything; we have a lovely beach, some huge parks and a cool city centre filled with shops and bars. My work journey is just long enough that the breeze wakes me up as I cycle to work every day.

In a way, I was blessed to start at an odd term; the summer interns were still around and none of the autumn ones had yet started. This gave me a head start and a fantastic insight into the knowledge of wiser people as to the ins and outs of this city. I got to do some must-dos right on my first week that some others hadn’t even heard in all of the time they had been here.

Like the celestial vault hills. What a fabulous place for jogging and watching the sunset. Or just deep talks with people you have only just met. You have to go to know.

The Hague Market is also fantastic; they have everything you could hope for. And by that, I mean waffles and cheap fruits.

Hague city is just packed with small shops and cafes (don’t mistake cafes and coffee shops in the Netherlands… they serve different products entirely). It is lovely to stroll around the city centre and along the canals. Maybe the Dutch aren’t that pro at making good coffee (or maybe I am spoilt) but they sure know about beer.

One of the best parts of any day is the sunset where you can put a beautiful day to rest and wait for tomorrow’s adventures with excitement. I truly love the Northern pink and long-lasting sunsets. Besides the Vault, the beach is a fabulous place for this.

The Hague beach is occupied by dozens of restaurants allowing you to make your pick for your favourite spot.

A little while back, for two weekends in a row, we hosted the firework world championships (who even knew it was a thing) which turned out to be such a pleasant surprise!

Did I mention that if you ever spend time in the Netherlands you have to have a bike? Maybe I thought it was too obvious… I just had a chat with a friend about his semi-recent trip to the country and apparently he purchased a bike for the week he was here from some random dude off the street for 20 euros. Not too bad.

The Hague doesn’t first give it away but there are some super cool and magnificent buildings. Besides the courts, there is the Peace Palace, the Houses of Parliament and even some army bunkers from WWII. So you can definitely come here for the cultural experience as well as for the fun.

The Hague is also located nicely, not that anything is really far in the Netherlands, but I would say that this is a prime location: 30 min cycle to the town of Delft, near Amsterdam and Rotterdam, right by the sea and with short train access to nearly everywhere including Belgium and Luxemburg.

Also,m who doesn’t like beautiful places? Oh, and somehow the Dutch seem to really like their music, especially jazz which suits me very well! Like the jazz festival on the boats… what is there not to love?

Next time: my little road trip around the Netherlands with a 24h unlimited train pass.

Best wishes,

Mira

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