We had spent all morning winding our way through a maze of phone calls and on-line cancellations and reservations for our last night in Europe before we board the plane for home. It was the last piece of the mensa-level game of plane, train and hotel changes that Bill has been playing for a week.
As a result, we left the apartment later than we hoped. Still, we had four hours to travel from our Air BnB in the suburbs to the parking lot in downtown Hague; spend a couple of hours in the museum; buy some wine; and arrive at our Dutch friends' home for appies at 4:00.
A hint of the trouble to come came almost immediately when the GPS warned of construction ahead. We boldly chose 'ignore' rather than 'detour'. (This had worked for previous warnings of congestion - we now know the difference....) When we finally got in to the city, 45 minutes later!, the warnings stopped but the barricades increased. Apparently, our GPS had not been made aware of the city's construction schedule and route changes. To cut a nightmare story short, we spent the remaining three hours (seriously) unable to use the route shown on our screen because of barriers - recalculating, being told to reverse directions, driving down tram lanes, recalculating, circling past the Escher Museum three times, recalculating, driving down through China town as the street got narrower and narrower, recalculating, and finally realizing there'd be no museum today, we only barely had time to try to get to our friends' house. When we were safely parked outside their place, we sat and alternated complete disbelief at what we've been through, with laughter at the craziness, and my total relief that we had survived. I said to Bill I had the same instinct that I used to have on the boat when things got rough. I just wanted to jump out of the car and head for dry land!
Today, we took the tram.
We had help all along the way: how to buy an all-day pass once on the tram, which station to get off, how to find the Mauritshuis art gallery, where to get another tram to go to Delft, when to get off, and finally in the TI in Delft, how to get home!! The woman in the TI happily pointed out that we should remember what we see in downtown Hague because there is a massive construction project underway and when we return to the Netherlands, we will never recognize the downtown area. Ha, ha, ha....
Well, you'd think that's the last of the silliness. We noticed that each time we got on and off a tram, when we swiped our pass as you are supposed to, nothing registered. It was always crowded so we'd just keep on going knowing we had the correct day pass should anyone ask. On our second to last trip, Bill realized we were swiping the glass section at the top but should have noticed a round pink circle below. We laughed at ourselves and wondered what would happen when we finally did it right after a day of not actually swiping. After our time in the TI, we walked (well actually ran through pelting rain and hail) to the train station and saw our tram sitting ready to go. We rushed onto the tram, grabbed our cards out of our special pockets, swiped them, noticed no sound but kept going to a ready seat, then looked down and realized we'd both grabbed our museum cards by mistake! The woman across from us must have wondered about the hysterical foreigners across from her. I noticed when we left the tram that Bill pushed the open door button before doing a final swipe (hoping we could make a quick get away before someone shouted "STOP!")
Tomorrow we turn in our car, make our way to a train station, get on for a train ride to Rotterdam, then a fast train to Paris. Wish us luck.....
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| Easy enough, right? |
Love the image of you two having a laugh on the tram :D Travel and transit... always a good source of entertainment!
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