After a week of wining and Rhining we headed to the Netherlands to be exposed to, but not partake in, some slightly stronger legal drugs (seriously not sure if the diplomats roaming the streets or the crockery coming out of Delft are more baked around here) and spend time with some very good friends who live there. We spent 4 days in Den Haag (pron: “Den“ and the sound you make when you realise you‘ve just swallowed that wasp that was hanging around your beer, “aaaaaakgh!”. You also have to be slightly aggressive when you say it, a “we know it‘s a horrible sounding language but it‘s ours!” kind of thing).

Although we only stayed Den Haag we were able to see all the sights of the Netherlands in one morning, thanks to the awesome miniature replicas at Madurodam (we assume meant for kids). Kind of like Tassie‘s Tudor village, but much, much better and actually often visited. The highlight, for Lea, was seeing James get squirted on by a dyke. There was a game (we assume meant for kids) where this dyke started leaking and you had to stick your finger in it to plug the leak. Then a leak would spring out elsewhere…and so on. While I never quite managed to succeed, I was reasonably confident I knew what was needed to finish, but I could never put my finger on it.

Other than just hanging out, we also visited an incredible castle (one of the best we’ve seen!), the beach, the Escher museum, went for a big ride through town, and went to a street party. Then, after James got over the shock that after having reclaimed almost their entire country the Dutch were still not satisfied and had now started making China, we potted around Royal Delft…and after a couple of non-driving-day-morning-mimosas I was a bit more like a bull in a China factory. Delft was a lovely little day trip. We had been a bit apprehensive at first, as our experiences with Dutch ovens haven‘t ended well, so the idea of a Dutch kiln was truly terrifying!