Sunday shopping,boozing & unwinding in Den Haag

My parents are visiting us in NL for the second time and after our first trip to Leiden together yesterday I decided to take them somewhere more familar to me today. I have made a few trips to Den Haag but still haven't covered everywhere on foot in this great city, which I'm sure you are aware is home to the parliament even though Amsterdam is technically the capital of the country.

First stop for photo opportunities was the impressive buildings of the Binnenhof (Parliament) the Grote Kerk (church) and City Hall, etc before 'accidently on purpose' stumbling into the shopping centre, well I had to keep Mum happy after all and Den Haag is a shoppers paradise, easily my fave place so far in this country and one of the few places that is open on a Sunday but it was still reasonably quiet today.

After a good shop and enjoying a cheap but cheerful lunch at the Hema's (department store) cafe it was time to sit,have a beer and soak up the atmosphere and where better to do that than in ''Vavoom Tiki Room'' by the Grote Markt. Surely worth going in for the name alone! Many cocktails on offer at a ridiculous price so we opted for a couple of glasses of Jupiler lager and sat listening to a freebie concert for Amnesty International. There's a sign outside the bar stating ''Time flies when you're having Rum'' and various other funny slogans. Well time certainly did fly by here, well worthy of a visit if you're in the neighbourhood. Check out loads of their photo's at flickr.com

Making our way back to Centraal train station we wandered across the Plein where there's a whole host of bars, cafe's and restaurants even more impressive than the Grote Markt so we obliged and popped to ''Byblos'', a greek cafe bar, grabbing the last few rays of evening sun out on the terras, courtesy of a rather delightul corner sofa! I really love the continental cafe culture that's happening in this country especially here in Den Haag.