The trip from Delft to Leiden appeared on the map to be mostly through city. As we left Delft we wound through what must have been a very wealthy area. The houses were very large and the land the houses were on was big too. (I looked up on real estate web site and found homes with 3 bedrooms and about 2000 square feet are about 700,000 euros ) We then made our way into Den Hague. (The Hague for Americans) Since the 1300s The Hague has been the seat of the Dutch Governments.
The Netherlands as it is today came together under William of Orange. That is him on the horse in the Picture above. The lower picture is the Palace of the Netherlands. The current King is Willem-Alexander who began his reign after his mother Queen Beatrix abdicated the throne in 2013. The royal family in the Netherlands is largely a symbolic position.
Not far from the Royal Palace was the Ukrainian Embassy. We have definitely noticed very strong support for Ukraine since we have been in Europe.
The Hague is home to several international agencies. The building above is the Peace Palace which is the home of the International Court of Justice (one of the United Nations agencies) The court is meant to settled disputes between countries.
For fun we stopped at Madurodam. The story behind this is about a brave Dutch soldier from WW2 who initially fought in the Dutch army, then with the Dutch underground resistance, eventually ending up in a concentration camp and died two weeks before the camp was liberated. His parents felt that he needed to be remembered and honored so they built this park which has miniatures of many important buildings from all over the Netherlands. It was fun trying to find some of the buildings we have already seen.
As we left The Hague we entered a large park made up of sand dunes along the North Sea. The park was about 5-8 miles in length. It was quite similar to the area around Sleeping Bear Dunes. At the end of the park was a large public Beach. We have noticed that the beaches here tend to have a comercial presence. Usually at least food vendors, often other activities.
The ride today was interesting for the buildings seen in The Hague. We stayed generally on the route with no major detours. A good day of cycling.
Tomorrow we rest in Leiden before pushing further north.
Peace
Dale and Ila
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