Bike Ride

On Wednesday five international friends and I went on a bike ride to den Haag! (The Hague) My two roommates Jen and Mair, Jesse and Beatrice from the UK, and Bert from Switzerland. We also stopped in Delft, a smaller town in between Rotterdam and the Hague. Google maps told me it would take about an hour and a half, but with our slow and lazy cycling and stopping for food and photos it took us more like six hours. Along the bike path between Rotterdam and Delft we came across the most adorable, tiny village called Zweth, with little houses in a row along a canal and a narrow cobblestone street. Both Zweth and Delft are the sorts of places where you forget that cars exist because the streets are so narrow and windy and almost always divided by a canal, and are overrun with pedestrians and bikers.

Some photos of Zweth:

Strange Dutch ducks.

On the way to Delft the bike path passed through woods and past houses big and small, through flat expanses of fields and farmland that reminded me of the American Midwest, and over and along countless canals. The sun even came out for us as we reached Delft!

I think this is a museum. The Dutch don't like to show off wealth.

On the outskirts of Delft were a lot of huge, impressive, modern-looking university buildings which gave me the impression that Delft is a bit of a college town. Then in the center we reached a plaza with two even more impressive buildings sitting opposite each other, both looking at least several hundred years old, surrounded by many little shops, some more touristy than others. We parked our bikes to eat lunch and walk around a bit, and ate some of the best fried seafood I've ever had- really sweet little mussels and white fish. Delft will definitely be a hangout spot for the sunny, warmer days ahead.

Bert, Jesse and me

Jen and Bert

Europeans are so much better at catering to pedestrians.

The water gets reeeeal close here...

Inside a giant clog!

It was mid-afternoon when we left Delft and by the time we finally reached the Hague we were exhausted, especially since most of us were not used to biking so much. The Hague turned out to be a lot like Rotterdam in its size and scale, though it had more historic buildings and narrower, older streets. It may have been that we were cold and tired, but the Hague was not as impressive as we'd hoped, and so we sat in a pub for a while and took the metro home. All in all the trip a success, though a little too long.

Windmill spotting on the way to the Hague!

This gets me thinking all of the other places I could bike to. Amsterdam? Belgium? Eindhoven? 

In other news, last night I tried poffertjes. They are fluffy bite-sized pieces of heaven dripping with butter and so much sugar on top it looks like it snowed. They're mini pancakes that are popular in the Netherlands, and they're better than any donut or fried dough I've ever had in the US. They made up for the fact that I ordered sushi at a Korean place the same day and received rice and seaweed rolled up with cooked tuna with mayonnaise. I know the Dutch love mayo, but that's taking things too far.

Met vriendelijk groeten,

Maggie