We did it! We finally adventured out of our 800 square foot apartment for more than a few hours, and it felt glorious! Last weekend, we rented a car and took a road trip to The Hague, Netherlands. We spent two days wandering through the canopy-covered nature trails and sinking our toes into the sand. We felt a bit like a rebellious teenager, leaving our flat and escaping to our neighboring country after 70 days of isolation, but the border was open, and no one was stopping us.
The mini trip definitely had a different vibe than our previous trips. Like when we first arrived at the airport to pick up our rental car on Saturday morning… the place was a ghost town. There were only 6 flights on the departure board and only four travelers that we saw. On a plus, it was the quickest rental pick up we’ve had!
After completing a quick wipe down of the car and setting the tunes to play, we were off on our first adventure in what felt like months… oh, wait… it has been months…
We had no real reason for picking The Hague, other than we heard it was a neat place to visit, it had several beaches close to the city, and there was a highly rated (meaning clean) Marriott. As we were driving into town, we pulled up a list of recommended things to see in The Hague and quickly learned that this place is the “International City of Peace and Justice” and more significant than we expected.
On our drive, we took in the sights of blooming poppies lining the highways and joked about tasty cheeses as we passed through Gouda. We stopped for a quick treat at Starbucks and quickly realized that masks are not part of the required dress code in the Netherlands… In fact, we only saw one mask the whole time we were in the Netherlands, including a quick trip to the grocery store. That was weird! But the country was taking other precautions (like limiting the number of people in the smaller shops), and the Dutch citizens were very good about keeping the 1.5-meter distance.
When we arrived at the hotel, we learned about the extra precautions Marriott was taking as well, including placing tables with Kleenexes and trash cans outside and inside the elevators, so you didn’t have to share germs when touching the buttons. That’s something we never thought about!
After dropping off our bags, we set off for the beach, the main reason we came! Our GPS took us to a little neighborhood where we found parking, gathered our picnic, and set off for the sand. We wandered for a bit before finding an old wooden gate that took us through the sand dunes, and eventually down to the sea.
It wasn’t an ideal walk-on-the-beach kind of day due to the heavy winds (which may have been for the best because it meant fewer crowds), but the water was full of entertainment with windsurfers and kite surfers stippling the skyline and several boats “parked” on the horizon.
We strolled down the beach with the wind pushing us along, ignoring the blasting sand on our feet and Jeff’s calves, and decided that it might be best to save our picnic for the car instead of sitting in the sand. On our way back, we walked through the sand dunes versus turning around and walking into the wind along the beach… it was an excellent decision, not just for our feet, legs, and eyes, but also because we got to see the beautiful poppies blooming in the dunes!
Following the beach and car picnic, we dropped the car at the hotel and set off through the lush parks to the Peace Palace and home of the International Court of Justice. We were disappointed, but not surprised that the palace was temporarily closed, but luckily we were still able to see the Eternal Peace Flame, surrounded by the “World Peace Path,” consisting of stones and inscriptions from 196 countries. That was pretty neat!
We spent the next bit wandering through the beautiful nature paths (keeping an eye out for the thousands of caterpillars hanging off the trees… that was startling at first!) and stopping at a small lake to watch the fisherman and their families dropping lines in the water.
In the late afternoon, we set off for another trip to the beach. On our previous beach exploration, we had seen a Ferris wheel in the distance and wanted to see what that was all about. Like usual, we were glad we did because as we were making our way to the Ferris wheel, we found some “Instagram worthy” rainbow pillars, where of course, we stopped and snapped some photos. We also found an indoor food market where we were hoping to get dinner, but everything (besides a sketchy fish and chips place) was closed, just like all of the restaurants, shops, and casinos along the beach. #quietzone #placetoourselves
Just like earlier in the day, we decided to save our eyes from the sand, and instead of walking on the beach, we took to the streets and made our way back to the hotel. We ended up ordering Liferando for dinner (nothing was open on our route home) and enjoyed sipping wine and watching the 9:45pm sunset out our window.
On Sunday, we set off for the city center. We made our way to the Binnehof, the main square where the city started and is now home to the Netherlands politics (aka the Washington DC of the Netherlands). We strolled through an antique market set up in the park, wandered through The Hague’s Arcade (shopping center), and popped out near Grote of Sint-Jacobskerk (which was unfortunately closed).
We took the scenic route back to Düsseldorf, driving by countless fields and catching picturesque views of old windmills on the canals. We drove through Lisse in the hopes of finding a few tulip fields still in bloom and lucked out, passing by one patch of purple tulips and one field with a few late bloomers of multiple colors. Unfortunately, there was no room to stop the car, so we’ll have to cherish our “brain-photos” instead of real photos.
We made one last stop at Baldeneysee (a large reservoir about 30 minutes from Düsseldorf). We were planning to spend some time walking around the lake and hiking to castle ruins; however, our bladders were talking and as we learned earlier in the trip, open bathrooms were a rare find… even McDonald’s wasn’t letting guests use their facilities… so, instead of dancing our way around the lake, we walked to the pier, took a quick peek at the water, and decided we’ll have to come back in the summer!
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