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In Which I Am Bamboozled By Art
August 2, 2007 by Mike
Den Haag
Route: Castricum - Haarlem - Noordwijk - Den Haag
The coast road here is frustrating and reminds me of Sweden in that you don't actually see the sea. Not, on this occasion, because the sea views are being saved from blight but because the whole *country* is being saved from blight - flooding. Holland is so low that the rolling dunes here form a natural but vital barrier.
I pull in to Den Haag not knowing whether I want to stop and see anything. I don't feel like a big city today. Instead I've rediscovered the joy of sitting on a beach doing absolutely nothing. My batteries are being recharged, I'm getting something approaching a tan and the sand is in my toes. More importantly.. I couldn't go to a beach for years.. too many people reading The Da Vinci Code.. wasn't sure I'd be able to control myself.. but it looks safe now, at least in Holland where nobody reads books. (They're too busy cycling.)
There's a street market in the centre of Den Haag, and space to park the bike. It's a sunny day and the stalls retreat into the distance under a canopy of tall trees on a dusty square. I browse the books, tempted by a 10-volume encyclopaedia in Dutch but ultimately swayed by a slight lack of space on the Bonnie.
At the back of the market, though, I stumble upon a former royal palace that now houses an exhibition of MC Escher. It hadn't even occurred to me but yes, he's Dutch. Do you know his work? Perhaps not by name, but look at this or this or this as examples. Fantastic to see originals of pictures I have seen so many times: there's a book of Escher in my parents' house. And fun to discover, I liked his earlier prints and woodcuts -- architectural gems viewed from improbable angles, city and country landscapes reproduced in fine detail -- as much as the 'puzzle' pictures.
Den Haag has plenty of older Dutch art too. The 'Girl With The Pearl Earring' is here but I've seen the film, why bother with the original*? It has a beach-bound suburb, Scheverengen, with a double-decker pier that probably looked good 40 years ago.
*joke!*
What the city doesn't have is a cheap hotel room but I've made the switch from 'beach' to 'city' without realising it and don't feel like getting back on the bike this afternoon. I find a 'not-expensive' room instead. I love walking round a new city. Den Haag is tidy and manageable on foot in a way it isn't on the bike, when the lack of roadsigns directing you from one part of the city to another is stunningly inept. (Everyone I talk to laughs "Yes, it really is stupid, isn't it?" Bet it never changes.) The pedestrian streets at the heart of the city are busy with people late into the night. The canals and waterways that appear at odd moments as I walk round, mapless, are constrant reminders that I'm in Holland -- or is it St Petersburg?
Anyway, I enjoy my wanderings, all the more so as I flirt mildly with a beautiful woman when I stop for a bite to eat and it turns out when she leaves, flashing the foxiest smile, that she's French.. which makes the next few weeks seem all the more appealing.
Castricum at sunset
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