Day 3 in Den Haag and Delft

Instead of sticking around Amsterdam today, we took one of our bonus days on the rail pass and traveled down to Der Haag to visit Madurodam (the biggest little city in Holland). Even though it was a kids themed park it was really cool to see all the sites in the country in miniature. The trains were really neat to see travel around the park and it had a real working lock system on the canal. It was 15E each to get in, so although it was a little expensive it was totally worth the expense. Traveling on the train also allowed us to get to understand how the pass worked as well as the rail stations and trams.

After Madurodam, we went to the Den Haag torture museum. The presentation was in Dutch but the building was cool as well as the instruments of torture. We also ran into a couple who spoke a little Dutch and could translate into English some of the speech. It also happened they were from Calgary, so it was a little bit surreal. They live in Glendale and were visiting relatives in Den Haag.

Compared to Amsterdam, Den Haag is a very modern city. The trendy looking buildings and shopping area was really cool to walk around and it seemed to have a slower pace then Amsterdam.

After that, we were recommended to visit Delft (where they make the China plates) so we went there. Delft is very close to Den Haag, so it was only a few minute train ride away. It is a really quiet smaller town and I quite enjoyed it. We found a pub called Kobus Kuch that had pints of beer for half the price of what you can get it anywhere in Amsterdam (2.5E). We asked for some authentic Dutch snacks (not nachos) and got some weird internal organ tasting meatballs and a plate with cheese, liverwurst and raw ground beef. I ate pretty much everything and have to say it was pretty good. The beef was a little bland and I still don't like liver but it was not bad. After dinner we walked around the town a bit more to look at the square and the churches as well as the windmill. After that we headed home on the express train back to Amsterdam. I would have to say that Delft would be a town I would want to visit for a few days whenever we come back to the Netherlands. I was really impressed with its cool things to see and small town charm.

Tomorrow I think we will try to hit a museum (not sure which one) and then go to the big shopping centre they have in town to look at what a Dutch department store looks like.