Den Haag (The Hague)

Crammed a lot in to today - first order of business, a bus ride to Den Haag (The Hague) to tour the M.C. Escher in Het Palais exhibit – very cool! Even Sophia got into it during the virtual reality tour. Some form of misunderstanding took place and the museum curator put the headset on Sophia (who was on my lap) instead of me. Sophia wouldn't share... so I sadly missed out on the VR tour. Was very cool to see Megan interested in the exhibit and starting to pick up on the use of lines to make images (we've been learning about the elements of shape in our drawing lessons).

Then we were off on a side trip to Gouda , which had been our intended destination prior to Den Haag, but the parking place was too small. (If you check out the web site above, click the British flag in the upper right of the screen for the English version of the site). We were so overwhelmed by the beautiful city (and to be honest, tired, it was a lot to cram in to one day) that we forgot to purchase Gouda cheese from Gouda. Oh well - we are enjoying plenty of fantastic cheese.

Note - we had originally tried to stop at Gouda for a few days... the picture below is the street leading in to Gouda; the picture on the right is the "Klein Amerika" motorhome parking spot - there are a few spots for motorhomes, needless to say, ours was a bit oversized for this particular stop...we would have had to make it around the bend and through the traffic control gates - which were already backed up as the parking lot was full. Wound up having to stop traffic coming in to and out of the parking lot in order to manuever the RV around and get out... needless to say, Dan was NOT amused with my choice.

Back to our visit to Gouda, we visited St. John’s church which is the longest church in the Netherlands and is filled with famous Gouda stained glass. From the exterior, you can’t tell that the windows are stained glass. The exterior of the windows are covered with mesh-like wire to prevent vandalism and are coated with a substance to help reduce impact from environmental pollution. Once you enter the building, the stained glass windows all but glows at you from the interior. These windows were cataloged and removed from site for storage in 1938. According to the brochure, the amount of stained glass inside the church is about 50% of the stained glass that is yet to be discovered from hiding in the NL. Inside the church, a wedding processional was about to begin. Funny that they don’t stop tourist tours for a few minutes to allow the family some private time for the wedding. On the positive side, we finally got to hear the fantastic organs in a European church... and on the selfish side, some poor sould is destined to hear about a "dream" wedding from Megan (in a huge church with fantastic stained glass windows and beautiful chandeliers...).

Stopping in a candy store, I found some 99% chocolate bars from Lindt. Dan had just given me a web link to a chocolate tasting experiment. So, dutifully, I grabbed 65%, 75% and 99% chocolate. The clerk warned me, "The 99% is not for eating. Only baking. If you even eat a tiny bit, you will get an instant headach." Righto.

Later that night, after the kids were in bed and over a glass (or two) of Malbec, I broke out the chocolate. I let one square of 65% slowly melt on my tongue. Yep. Tastes as expected, yum! Next up, 1 square of 75%... let it melt, slowly, slowly... don't rush it. Mmmm, nice, dark taste. Finally, a quarter of one square of 99% - let it melt - it wasn't bitter, but also not sweet. I found it enjoyable, Dan not so much. After savoring the 99% for a few minutes, I worked my way back down... 75%, then 65% - and that's when it really hits. The flavor differents completely POP - especially with the fruitiness of the 65% chocolate. Patience, the right frame of mind and overall, a very enjoyable experience. I don't know that I've ever been satisfied with eating only 4 1/4 squares of chocolate before ... I'm normally gobbling it up, wishing for more. ;-)