So... when last we spoke, I had landed in Frankfurt on Saturday morning. First thing Monday morning, we walked down to our local metro station and caught a metro to the main station downtown, then boarded a train bound for The Hague. We arrived a few short hours later and navigated to our hotel... sadly, a different hotel than our last visit. The shower in this one wasn't nearly as impressive as the one from last time. The location was quite a bit closer to the train station though - I guess you win some and lose some. We checked in, then started poking around, looking for a place to eat - that turned into a much bigger ordeal than it really needed to be. Turns out our hotel was right on the edge of the main shopping district, with restaurants lining most of the surrounding streets. We didn't know that at the time though, and somehow managed to stay away from most of the populated areas that first night. Anyway, found an Italian place - the wife had lasagna, and I had pizza.
The next morning, the wife went to work, and I decided I was going to shower and shave my head. There are only a couple of readers of this blog who remember me with more than stubble on my head - I've been shaving it for eighteen years now. Not a single time in that eighteen years have I needed to go to the emergency room for an injury sustained while shaving... until last Tuesday morning in The Hague. I nicked the top of my ear while shaving my head in the shower, and bled like a stuck pig for two and a half hours, direct pressure be damned. I walked to the local pharmacy twice for different supplies, and finally gave up and went to the emergency room, just simply for some help getting it to stop bleeding.
The doctor tried direct pressure. Didn't work. She tried superglue. Didn't work. She tried something else - I can't remember what it was, but it didn't work. After over an hour of trying to get it to stop, she ended up putting a single stitch in, then a strip of some sort of clotting material, then 2 or 3 of those steri-strip things. Then, she covered my whole ear with a bandage and tape - I joked to my wife that I was working on my Halloween costume, dressing up as Van Gogh.
All for nicking myself while shaving.
Let's see.... oh, I got to visit my Hat Lady again. Last time we were there, I found a hat store, and the lady who owns it took some time with me and helped me pick out a hat. I'd been wanting to be a "hat guy," but hadn't been able to find one that looked good. She spent a lot of time with me, helping me choose the right style and color, and now whenever we go back to The Hague, I'll try to go back and see her again.
Lots of exploring... to be perfectly honest, The Hague has turned into one of my favorite cities. It's just a comfortable place to explore. The demographics of the city seem to skew pretty young, but in both of our visits we've stayed mostly around the tourist areas, and there's a major college in that area of town as well, so that might be coloring my viewpoint.
This morning, before we hopped on a train headed back to Germany, we walked through the Mauritshuis museum, and saw some of the work of the "Old Masters," including Rembrandt and Vermeer. There were quite a few other artists exhibited there as well, but I'd only heard of those two and Rubens (also saw some of his stuff). If you wanna read the work of a real art critic, you're on the wrong blog. Saw lots of pretty pictures.
I think that was about it... more trips are coming up, so stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment