Tulips Galore!

I am about to leave my room to start heading for the airport to spend my weekend with my mother at Disney Paris, but I have just enough time to post up some of my beautiful pictures from my trip to Keukenhof! As part of an ISN (International Student Network) trip, Laura and I went to Keukenhof yesterday to tour the fabulous flower garderns. Open only eight weeks of the year, Keukenhof is about as sterotypically Dutch as you can get, complete with thousands of tulips and a windmill. Unfortunately it was bit cold and overcast, but we were still able to walk the majority of the gardens in the time we had without being too uncomfortable! Here are some of my favorite pictures that I took - I may add more once Laura posts hers, as she took some funny ones of us!



Me, if I were a Shetland pony!

Day Trip to Den Haag

Look! Its a post that is NOT about food! You should all be proud.

Since Rachel (other girl from Oxy in my program) and I both do not have class on Fridays, we decided to get on a train and go to the Hague for the day. The Dutch public transport system is awesome, so this was really not a big deal at all, trains run there at least every half hour if not more. I am SO jealous of the Dutch public transport system when compared to Los Angeles.

We ran around the city happily for the day, covering a lot of ground and having a blast. The main attractions/sights we visited:

1. The Queen's Palace

I wasn't that excited by this, as it was fairly understated on the outside, as is usual for the Dutch. More attention grabbing was the pair of evil seagulls that harassed us as we tried to eat our sandwiches on a bench across from the palace. Still, it was neat to see.

2. The International Court of Justice/Peace Palace

It took us a while to find the building, but I was glad when we finally did. While we were not able to go inside (you have to reserve a tour in advance, and we also didn't have our passports on us for identification). Still, the building was beautiful, and it was just fun to stand outside and look at.

3. Museum of Communications

Rachel and I stumbled up this on the way to the Peace Palace. Thanks to our museumkaart (thanks CIEE!) we were able to get into the museum for free. Everything was in Dutch, so we clearly missed some things, but the museum was basically an exhibit on the different ways we communicate. The most exciting areas for me was the section showcasing the different phones used in Hollywood movies (including Clueless!), and the children's section, which was this huge interactive board game/play area. Seriously, if I were a Dutch 10 year old this would have been the best museum ever! There was even an R2D2 phone in the futuristic section, which made me VERY happy

4. The Mauritshuis

Probably the coolest part of our visit. The Mauritshuis is an art gallery which showcases Dutch painters, including Rembrandt and Vermeer. Rachel was SO excited to go see The Girl with the Pearl Earing, and even though I'm not a huge art history person, I'll admit it was pretty awesome. It helped that you recieved a free audio tour with your admission (again, free thanks to the museumkaart!), which helped make me look at the paintings and not just wander restlessly. The Mauritshuis itself was a beautiful place for an art gallery, feeling like a stately old mansion with character rather than a sterile museum.