Friday, November 8th, 2024
Manuel and I are taking a day trip to The Hague today – the global hub of international law and arbitration. Very impressed with how clean and beautiful the city is. We got there riding the FlixBus from Amsterdam (40 miles/65 km) for €5.
Arrived early morning and had breakfast at Sam Sam.
Head to the beach (no swimming!) and the temperature feels like it’s getting colder. Should have gotten that jacket last night! Exploring the pier and making stops inside the mall area to get warm.
But hey, it’s cold, so let’s do a walking tour! Maybe by walking I’ll warm up! Actually the walking tour was great and I learned a lot!
First stop is Haagse Harry standing next to the dog poop he didn’t pick up. Harry is the stereotypical unemployed, foul-mouthed and obscene Hagenees guy wandering around the street while commenting on everything with his distinctive Haags dialect. This 2 meter tall and 3 ton statue is a dedication to a comic character created by a local cartoonist, Marnix Rueb. According to our guide, Rueb passed away in 2014 and his ashes are inside Harry’s belly!
I won’t get into all the details of the tour, but here are some highlights:
The local drugstore… back in the day, they used to compound people’s homemade remedies into drugs. But to be sure the formulas were effective, they would “hire” tasters, usually lower classes of society to test the compounds. This is represented by the sculptures of people with their tongues sticking out.
Loved the drug store! Awesome website, Scott! Moving right along…
Never seen the medical symbol of the snake used in a pharmacy. Cool! That what I love about these trips, little things too.
Hi Lynn! I really liked the pharmacy and the history behind it. It is fun learning about these little things!
Love that drug store, too! There were a lot more of the heads with tongues sticking out inside, that I didn’t capture in the photos.