Day 8-The Hague, Netherlands

This morning, we entered the Netherlands…it is beautiful and somewhat like we have stepped into a version of It’s a Small World. All of the windmills and the houses with the perfectly manicured lawns are just so picturesque. Once we arrived in the Netherlands, we traveled by bike through world heritage windmill park. This was a tough ride as the rain was coming down and FREEZIN! I was also worried cuz I had not been on a bike for years. So that whole saying about riding a bike appears to be true…you never forget. I spent so many years on the 2 wheels of bike that I forgot how comfortable I m riding. I am excited to return home and ride the bike I purchased a few months ago Anyway, we go on this ride and we have a couple of girls that truly did not know how to ride a bike. Kim and I worked with them (Kim running along behind them pushing them along!) and both girls were able to ride and make the entire trip…it is experiences like this that make traveling with students amazing. The look of accomplishment in their eyes is just contagious!

Once we completed our ride, we went on a walking tour of the Hague, which is the seat of Dutch govt and royal family. The only problem with the tour is that it is Sunday and everything is closed down. It seems that throughout most of the countries that I have traveled to on this tour, everything shuts down on Sunday for church etc. No stores are open or anything! Makes walking tours kinda quiet

On our walking tour, we stopped to take pics outside of international court of justice, otherwise known as the "peace palace". The building in beautiful and built in the gothic style. Interestingly enough, while the building is beautiful, it has borne witness to some of the world’s worst crimes of humanity. Milosevic and Saddam were both tried here at one point. The international court of justice was established after WWII to prevent another genocide like Germany from happening. As we know, it does not prevent genocide but instead tries to bring justice to those affected by it….