The Hague
Map
May, 2002
To a Russian ear “goedemorgen”, the Dutch for “good morning”, sounds like you’re saying “dick morhen” in Russian.
The city’s name is written Den Haag, but pronounced “Denaah” (they skip the H, plus the G is pronounced like an “h”). In English it’s The Hague. Unless you know this there’s no bloody way you’ll be able to buy a ticket to go there — no one understands you when you say the Russian word for it, which is “Gaaga”.
The trams perform the role of lawnmowers.
The kerbstones are laid like puzzle pieces — the result is very sturdy.
Phone box.
Sign stating the distance to the nearest manholes.
Sometimes the city is so shrouded is fog that you can’t make out anything at all:
Both batteries went completely flat so I couldn’t take any more photographs. There’s no point taking snaps when it’s so foggy anyway.
At the Museon you can visit an exhibition of Degas’ and other impressionists’ work after queuing in a line of three people. There’s an impressionist exhibition on in Amsterdam at the same time. For that one you have to buy a ticket stating on what day at what time you will be attending — that’s how popular it is.
Dutch money used rank among the most beautiful in Europe, second only to the Swiss. It has now been replaced by ugly euros. I hardly miss the franc at all, the lira — not one bit, marks — not particularly. But I do miss the guilder terribly.
Also, Dutch euro coins all have the same picture on them: the queen, whereas the German ones have three or so different images for the obverse side.
By the way, there are one hundred cents in one euro. For some reason no one knows this.
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