In five days, on Saturday, Merijn will leave me for a while. She’ll fly to the USA for three months of research with FEI Company in Oregon, a major stakeholder in her project. Therefore, and because she’ll turn 28 soon, she organized a farewell party at our home last Friday. Friday happened to be ‘Koninginnenach’ too, which means that several concerts on multiple stages throughout the city center of The Hague are held. It’s a huge event, which attracts massive crowds. A major stage happened to be built-up on the square in front of our home. From our window we could see down on the crowd jumping and cheering for bands like Van Dik Hout, Vive La Fête and others. Hence, good atmosphere for the party was guaranteed as it infiltrated our living room. Unfortunately we couldn’t see on the stage itself. Most guests came to have dinner with us, which had taken Merijn about a full day to prepare. I enjoyed it very much.
Next day, the 29th, my brother turned 26. Besides, it was Queen’s Day, which officially is on April 30th, but as the 30th is a Sunday this year, the festivities were shifted to the 29th. Merijn and I shortly explored the city center of The Hague. But we soon returned home, disappointed. We had seen very little activities to enjoy. Obviously, the highlight had passed, yesterday night. On Queen’s Day itself the city takes its rest to recover from the hangover. Something you have to experience once as a newcomer in town.
In the evening, we visited a neighbor’s birthday party in café ‘Stout’ next to our apartment building. We hadn’t been there before, but the interior was quite nice!
On Sunday we tried to catch up on some sleep, unsuccessfully. In the afternoon we visited the Escher-museum (www.escherinhetpaleis.nl), which is located in a small palace in The Hague. I was quite impressed by the beauty Escher created out of regular patterns, and was happy to be fooled by the ingenious impossibilities in his work. Besides, the fact that he really committed to what he liked most, despite the insecurity it entailed, is inspiring to me. (All that inspiration....I'm looking forward to the moment when I will wrap up all inspiration and turn it into action that itself will be helpful and inspiring to others.)
We finished the winter-like afternoon on the beach, behind the glass windows of a beach bar, over a steaming mug of hot drinks.
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