Rotterdam, March 24th

Today we are in 'The Hague'.  The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government and Parliament. (Which we saw!) In addition to seeing the International Court of Justice and the medieval Knights' Hall, we saw a few of the foreign embassies and homes of a some different foreign ambassadors. Nice digs!

We're walking, we're walking!... Onto the Mauritshuis Museum, home to many Rembrant paintings, and Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring.  We only had an hour inside so we scuffled quickly through 2 floors of art work, listening to our head-sets the museum provided, and back out the door.

I realized the last day of our vacation that Vermeer is my favorite artist, I will tell you more later. We could only take a 'photo' of this print of the painting. Cameras were forbidden in the museum.

Our tour guide, Jan (pronounced, "yawn") told us this vendor was very famous. Supposedly because he'd had his photo taken with famous government officials... you'de hope he'd run into a few in this town! At least! The photos were on the front of his cart. Cute!

I quickly jumped into this shot that Aida was taking of her husband Joe. We had dinner with them a couple nights earlier and they quickly became our favorite couple... more photos to follow!

How nice... they shot a photo of us! (Most museums instructed you to hold your backpacks on your front instead of on your back, so I just got accustomed to carrying it that way.) Yes, we took turns!

The bike park... I had to grab a shot of at least one to show the 'folks' back home. Unbelieveable how many bikes they could get into such a small space.  Our hotel in Amsterdam was next to the Central Train Station... I should have taken a shot of their biking STRUCTURE!... 5,000 bikes parked there daily!

Our fabulous morning tour of the Hague, was followed by an even more fabulous lunch at the Kurhaus Hotel Restuarant... I thought I died and went to heaven!  The inner lobby had an amazing vaulted ceiling complete with murals and ornamentures.  (I was so in awe I forgot to take a photo of it... google it!) Did I mention the food?! Oh mama! This is the view out the back of the hotel. Nice!

Is the day over with lunch? Oh no! We headed straight to the Porceleyne Fles, one of the last remaining Delftware factories in the city. We watched a video of how they produce their Delftware and then walked through the factory, and ended up, in their showroom... better known as "the shop". P.S... its cheaper to buy pearls!

One of the Delftware stores in the market center. But not just that...

This building is known as the birth place of Johannes Vermeer... cool!

If you speak Dutch, you will totally understand what this sign says! It could be his last living quarters, not birthplace. I can't remember. But I've read both. How reliable is google anyway!

I loved how so many doors were just inches above the water line on these canals. Crazy! They don't worry about flooding?

Our guide said this shop/home was one of his favorites. So, as the true tourists we are, we all took a photo!

The clock tower of this building began to lean so the architect (without computer instruments!) managed to figure out how to keep it balanced... ha! I think it was simple math.... ok, impressive!

We were so tired this last night on the cruise ship, we ate a great meal, and I passed out! But coincidentally I woke up right as they were parking us in Amsterdam right next to 3 other vessels! You can't see it that well, but there are 3 other river boats in this photo. We were on the innermost side of the port. I was impressed!