Worldly Chatter

Do you remember my little adventure into the Consulate in Amsterdam on Friday? Well the Civil Affidavit needed legalization for me to use it and that took place in The Hague, or Den Haag to the natives. Dutchie was born and raised in Den Haag so she thought it best she tag along because with my directional skills I was bound to get lost in the middle of the city! The office was open for legalization purposes from 8:30-12:30 and to get it done asap we opted to take the 7:59 train from Hilversum to Leiden where we transfer as to get to Den Haag. The Dutch railway system has this summer deal called Zomertoer (summer tour) where two people ride for 59 euro and you can travel anywhere all over Holland! For two days in a seven day span you can go absolutely anywhere in Holland so we bought one but for 69 euro because that includes buses and trams. We are planning on going to the Efteling, a theme park here, so if we used it today and this weekend it would pay for itself and we wouldn’t have to drive to either location. Sweet, we thought. This journey to Den Haag took an hour and a half! It normally takes about an hour by car but this was first thing in the morning so with morning traffic on a Monday you are looking at an easy 1-2 hour drive. Anyway, we get there and the building we need is literally right around the corner. We go in and go through one metal detector and have our personal effects put on a belt for scanning, exactly like at the airport. Up to the first floor, we go and take a number. Wait maybe two minutes and hand her my civil affidavit. She doesn’t need my passport or residence permit, just ten euro so we give that up and wait another five to seven minutes when it is handed back to us. We leave the building and head back to the station.

For something that took about twenty minutes, we needed to ride an hour and a half. However, the one thing that struck me was how easy it was to enter and exit the building. This, like the consulate, is a government building yet all we had were two men waiting for us, we went through the detector as I said and that was it. There was none of this drama with unlocking and locking five gates and doors to get one piece of paper! The differences in security are so drastic!

We were done and back in Leiden by 10:30 where we decided to stick around and with our lovely little zomertoer tickets we also went to Amsterdam for a late afternoon stroll before heading home where Dutchie finally got to see the consulate and the gates that make up this huge fortress around the building! I will right about our Leiden and Amsterdam ventures tomorrow with pictures!

The Hague, worldly chatter, Den Haag, Ministry of Justice, NS Dutch rail system