The kids were exhausted. On the way back to their hotel in The Hague they just fell asleep. It didn’t seem to matter that they were doing something unusual. The The Hague horse drawn carriage ride, the cherry on the cake of the whole tour, passed unnoticed. Did we do too much on this one day tour The Hague area?
Day program The Hague
In retrospective I think it may have been too much, the schedule packed with activities in the The Hague dunes, the Scheveningen beach and harbour. But, I really can’t help it: I’m a big fan of alternative tours and showing cities and their surroundings from a different perspective. I do know that things don’t always go the way you planned. Well, that’s for sure! I had planned a tramride to Delft and a short Delft city tour. Then I found out the tram didn’t go all the way to Delft and it was raining cats and dogs. One of the participants texted me with the question if they could visit the Escher museum. Slightly relieved, I proposed they visited the museum instead of going to Delft, which wouldn’t be that much fun anyway if my favourite tram wasn’t running.
Bar Mitswa Europe trip idea
At noon I met the participants, a Jewish American family who instead of doing a traditional celebration for the bar mitswa of their daughter/ niece went on a Europe trip. After having visited three European countries, they were now visiting the Netherlands for 5 days.
Fortunately the tram to the Scheveningen beach ran on a normal schedule. I brought the family to beach restaurant De Waterreus, where they had a fantastic sea food lunch and service was perfect.
Private tour Hague forest ranger
When the sky cleared we rented bikes and made our way to the Dunea information centre , which is located in the midst of the The Hague dunes. The park ranger stood in front of the centre waiting for us. The walk we made with him through the dunes was amazing. From a land full of potatoes he took us to a foresty area and whispered that we might be able to see the wild horses that were grazing in this valley full of hawthorns ( hence the name Meijendel). The eyes of the youngest participant lit up. When she spotted them she was extatic. The funny thing was that the horses followed her as if they were on a magic spell.
While she was still enjoying the attention of the wild horses, we climbed up the hill to get the most spectacular view overlooking a big lake with in the background the skyline of beach resort Scheveningen.
Water supply dune valley The Hague
It was at this point the park ranger explained how the dune water was extracted and used for distribution of drinking water to thousands of households in The Hague region.
The hague horse drawn carriage ride
Enchanted by the dune walk we returned to our bikes and cycled to the horse and wagon. The Hague horse drawn carriage ride back was, like I said, a quiet one. Only the youngest participant still chatted excitingly about the wild horses. The route was beautiful though and we had a lot of spectators. Everyone stopped to see the horse drawn carriage wagon pass by.
The day tour The Hague area was quite an adventure. And to be honest, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change a single thing.
