Elaine and I had a fun romantic 'long weekend', with enough time to follow our noses - get lost - and see some of the sights.  Below are a few photos from our trip.

I was able to join Elaine while she was working a four day trip to Den Haag.  Her parents came down from Cleveland (thanks again Carol and Howard for watching the kids!), allowing me to join Elaine.  The crew lay over is near the central area of Den Haag (think 'capitol of the Netherlands/home of the World court'), which was a nice and relaxing town.  The public transportation system was out of this world, allowing us to move about easily.  Also, the hotel that Delta put us up in (very nice) let us use some of their bikes, which was a great way to explore the city.

With any luck I'll have a video of our bike riding experiences up on the web site in a few days.  Until then, this clip will have to do (13.1 mb .AVI file).

Every time I've been fortunate enough to visit the Netherlands, it's civility impresses me.  They have fantastic public transportation (partially paid for incidentally, by the $6.70 a gallon unleaded gasoline . . . think about that the next time your bitching about the cost of gasoline in the U.S.), a great education system (everyone speaks three languages) and nationalized health care.  Den Haag had clean, safe, meandering cobble stone streets with open plazas around seemingly every bend.  Pedestrian shopping districts in old town, amazing museums (we went to a M.C. Escher museum, but there were many more), and super friendly people.  I'm not sure I'm quite ready to take the 50% tax plunge, but damn, those Dutch are civilized!