[Categories: Travel, Photography, Travel Photography]
[This series of posts is about our recent 3-day sightseeing plus 7-day Bike & Barge, Holland:Tulip Tour in the North and South Holland Provinces of The Netherlands.]
[See a list of all posts currently in this series HERE.]
Hang in there bi-cy-clers and pedal-interested. A day of walking today, meet the Bike & Barge group for pedestrian sightseeing tomorrow, and Sunday April 19th we finally starting biking. I trust my own posting stamina will hold for the duration of the trip though it might take me a month to complete.
TourTheHague.Com! I hadn’t thought about a guided tour of The Hague, let alone a private one, but I stumbled upon this website quite by accident not long before our departure. The idea intrigued me and I was able to book a personal, private guided tour via email. Our host for the tour was the venerable British ex-patriate and decades long resident of the Netherlands John Ryan. (I hope I have the last name correct.)
John met us at our hotel around 9:30am Friday morning and we embarked on a day long adventure.
Where did we walk? Here:
2. Mauritshuis, 3. Binnenhof
Just around the corner and across the familiar Het Plein (The Square) we walked past the line queueing for Mauritshuis (residence of The Girl With The Pearl Earring and other paintings by Vermeer) and entered the grounds of the Binnenhof, meeting place of the Dutch ‘States General of the Netherlands’ (government) and work place of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
(To save on WordPress storage and cost (hey, they run a business and I’m minimizing expense) see more Binnenhof pictures HERE. The Exif photo data is accurate in OneDrive too (click circled ‘I’ in lower left of a photo) whereas WP seems to often get shutter speed wrong.)
4. Oude Stadhuis, 5. Grote Kerk, 6. Johannes De Witt
See more HERE.
7. Binnenhof Lake, 7. William II White Palace (Two number sevens! What a klutz. I refuse to edit yet again.) 8. Pageshuis, 9. Work palace of Willem Alexander
See more HERE.
10. 1813 Monument, 11. Panorama Mesdag, 12. Bite Me Cafe
The Panorama Mesdag was a real treat. Go to the link above and click on ‘Interactief’ on the right side for an explanation of the various scenes.
See more HERE.
13. Peace Palace
This is The Hague, after all.
Fascinating story and history. More info.
On to the beach! Scheveningen at last! It’s a mouthful, pronounced ‘something like’ SHAVE-in-again. Our intrepid guide leads us to a nearby tram stop and has anonymous OV-Chipkartts to use for our rides to and from the beach. Once there we stroll the promenade:
Back in Den Haag we take a quick look at the massive indoor atrium at the modern City Hall of The Hague before concluding our tour.
Our tour lasted 6 1/2 hours. The total price for two people was 30 Euro/hr. for the first 3 hours and 20 Euro/hr thereafter. We paid extra for entrance fees such as the Panorama Mesdag and reimbursed John for the tram fees, about 10 Euros. You can go as long or as short as you like. You’re on your own clock and it’s your dime, uh, Euro. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Check out TourTheHague.Com.
Just don’t call me late for dinner:
Next, FINALLY, we meet the bicycle tour and the day AFTER we start biking. Hang in there!
John's Space ..... 
It sounds like a very lovely place to visit. Thank you for bring me there with you. 🙂
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Thank you for visiting.
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Thanks, I love walking tours and hadn’t known about this one in The Hague. And thanks also for dropping by my travel blog.
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Thank YOU.
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Fabulous adventure & photos!
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Thank you.
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Thank you John for sharing this info. I’m looking forward to spend one day in The Hague next month and this si exaclty what I was looking for. GR from Argentina.
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Check TripAdvisor.com also.
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