The Hague, Rembrandt and Oscar

We are going to the Hague today to go to the one art museum that I

told Oscar I would make him go to on this trip.  The group is going to the modern art museum there also, but I’m not going to push my luck, Oscar and I will be shopping and playing instead.  We head off on a tram to a train to get there and I’m shocked at having to pay 25 euro for a round trip ticket to the Hague.  I’m not sure why I’m surprised by  

 this, but I am.  And then I have to pay 15 euro to get in to the Mauritshaus museum, at least Oscar is free.  And just when I’m thinking that maybe he and I should have stayed in Amsterdam since we passed the flower market in our tram that I wanted to see there, he pays attention in the art museum.  He wants to go up and down the stairs more than he wants to look at the art, but he will play along in naming the animals or foods that he sees  in the still life paintings.  He recognizes the Girl with the 

Pearl Earring and says that they have a book about her at Tot’s place.  He then sees the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp by Rembrandt and decides it’s his favorite.  He asks all these questions about what they’re doing and why and it’s morbid, so it’s just what a little boy would be interested in.  And when we go to the museum store and he wants a post card of it for himself, the train trip and the entrance fee were worth it.  John and Oscar and I head to an Italian place for lunch after the museum because Oscar smelled pizza when we were 

walking to the museum and said he wanted pepperoni pizza.  I’m so ready for this kid to eat anything but a Bel Vita bar, I’m willing to find a pizzeria within a  5 mile range.  But what we do find is a cool Italian place that is called Vapiano’s where you get a card as you enter and you go order from stations around the place and just swipe your card.  You get all your food either when it’s ready with a  buzzer thing, or there at the counter as soon as it’s done and you check out with your card at the end of the meal.  It’s not all you can eat like we do at the moment here, it’s a vogue way to do an Italian cafeteria without the food already made.  It was

awesome.  We got pizza (that Oscar ate some crust of) and some bruschetta.  John doesn’t want to get any of their cool looking desserts because we talked to an ice cream stand guy who had a stroopwaffel ice cream sandwich that he wants to get, but when we get back to the corner, he is gone.  John is very bummed.  The group goes on to the museum and Oscar and I

go shopping.  We head through the Passage which is an “indoor” shopping area like in Milan.  And it’s upscale.  When I find the kids shop, the t shirts are 79 euro.  So, that’s not happening.  We find a cool souvenir shop and I’m able to complete all the shopping that I haven’t been able to do until now.  Oscar makes friends with the owner because she has a clog that he can sit in.  We head off to the park, but this park has no playground and after getting some poffertjies (little beignet like things) from a place that looks like Café du Monde in New Orleans, I let Oscar play

around a skate park that’s deserted.   We walk around the rest of the park to the train station just in time to hurry to the station because a thunderstorm has opened up.  We only wait in the train station for about 30 minutes before meeting the group and heading back to Amsterdam.  It’s raining in Amsterdam too, but not as hard yet.  We decide to get Italian again, another pizza and some spaghetti Bolognese near the hotel.  The pizza was good, the Bolognese sauce was okay, but the pasta was the best I think that I’ve ever had.  And I didn’t really know that I could distinguish pasta from the sauce…..it takes a while to get Oscar down because he feels the energy from the kids and everyone getting ready to go home tomorrow.  But he eventually does pass out.