Where will life lead me?: April 22, 2012 The Hague and Ocean (North Sea)

The Netherlands seems to have three capitals, The Hague happens to be one of them. The actual capital is Amersterdam, the Hague is known as the legal capital, and Rotterdam is the third (the business capital). The Hague is where the Queen works.

This is the Peace Palace. Various countries helped in the building of this palace so there are parts that resemble the different styles of the different countries. The Peace Palace in The Hague is home to the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Peace Palace Library, as well as The Hague Academy of International Law.

The World Peace Flame (located in front of the Peace Palace). In 2004 every country and region of the world united to build the World Peace Flame pathway and create a single declaration of peace - the first time in history that this has occurred.

Surrounding the World Peace Flame are rocks from each of the countries. This is the one from the United States.

This is our tour guide, Beth. The reason she has on the silly orange crown...it was the beginning of the celebrations for Queen Day (the queens birthday in next week and this week is devoted to many celebrations in honor of the event).

This cracked me up. The Hague had a carnival going on and this was the picture on the side of one of the temporary bathroom buildings.

Had to get a gargoyle picture in memory of Jennifer's amazing gargoyle impersonation at Trier. This is the Knights building.

I havent seen an Indian icon for a smoke shop in a long time, but here was one in The Hague outside a cigar shop.

The queens office is in this building.

William the Silent

How funny, the dutch version of a rickshaw???

Statue of Queen Wilhelmina. One of her famous quotes was "Lonely but not alone," depicting her life as a royal. During WWII when she was moved to England for her safety as the Nazis had overrun Holland. While there she continued to run her country. This and her outspokenness so impressed Churchill that he once said she was the only "Man" in England.

The American Embassy in The Hague. Funny how our embassies usually seem more like a jail than what an embassy should look (In my opinion). All these beautiful ornate buildins around and ours looks so sterile).

the entrance to the US embassy.

Bicycles everywhere. The impressive thing...very few were locked up. Supposedly there are more bicycles than people (about 1.1 bikes to each person) in the Netherlands. I can see why. It is flat and so why not ride a bike.