A day in The Hague

Guess who?

Just recently I bought a digital camera. I'm not an early adoptee you see. My first camera was a very simple one, then I moved on to aps and now, finally to digital. I have to confess; I should have done this years ago! Although I'm just a hobby photographer I only now realise the true potential of digital. I can take hundreds of pictures and pick out the best three. Where as in 'the old days' I at least had to develop the roles of film. A costly business. Anyway, I had to try out my new camera of course. So last Monday I went out. The day and night before, I worked myself trough the manual the best I could. When I got out and was on my way to the tram, I immediately started shooting. It's funny when you have a new camera, all of a sudden everything and anything is interesting enough to take a picture of.

Tram 9

I decided to go to the centre of the town for I am interested in architecture, both the old and the new and in the centre there's plenty of it. I took photos in the tram, of the tram and of every stop. When I got out in the centre my eyes worked like the lens of my camera and I looked (or should I say, scanned) the surroundings for beautiful 'photo-ops'. And boy, did I take every opportunity. I'm patriotic and chauvinistic enough to have always liked this town but with my camera-eyes on I got a whole new appreciation for my hometown. I walked and walked for hours. Saw the beauty of our city. The houses of parliament, the different Ministries and Departments, statues, signs, colours, lines and of course people.

View of 'Lange Vijverberg'

, it is the seat of our government. And therefore a lot of embassies are located in the city as well. One of them is the American Embassy and it sits in the middle of the centre very close to the parliament. It's situated on a gorgeous tree-covered lane surrounded by beautiful old buildings (18th & 19th century). The embassy is an ugly concrete block not worth taking a picture of. But you should see how nervous the guards get when you walk around with a camera.

Dutch architecture

I had to pose as an innocent tourist to avoid being arrested. And that was the second time that day.

Not far from central station en even closer to city hall houses (a part of) the Ministry of Defence. One can easily walk by it, without noticing it. But there's a back passage which gives you a beautiful view of three modern architecture buildings. You have to line up your camera just over the rooftop of the Defence department. It took only half a minute or so for an official to come up to me and asking me to leave. As this is a normal street I'm in and for we live in a free country, I had no intention of moving. I put up my most friendly face, including the best innocent smile I could produce and let the man see 'all' my pictures on the camera. Not one showed the off-limit building. As the guard was satisfied he walked away.

Café 2005 on 'Denneweg'

And since I had no intention of getting myself in to trouble, I slowly backed away out of the alley. On my camera there were at least four pictures of the facade of the building. Thank you Lord for letting me get away with it once more.

All this walking makes a man thirsty and hungry too. I went to one of my favourite cafes, 'café 2005'. It's a funny name for the place. The building is at least hundred years old and it's called '2005' for as long as I can remember. I've been coming to this place for about 25 years.  So its not named after the year. Actually the café is named after the neighbourhood which is called 'buurtschap 2005' (2005 quarter) which in its turn, takes its name from the postal code of the area. After a well deserved rest, I went on traveling like a tourist in my own town. See pictures below for more impressions.