Had a great time looking around Brussels. We were pleasantly surprised
as we were probably expecting something different, not the vibrant
picturesque city we experienced. Would definitely recommend a visit.

We still have a day to kill before we have to be in Amsterdam, so a quick
search of Google maps was in order to find somewhere for a quick visit.
Decided on going to The Hague,
about 50km from Amsterdam. Right, hands up those who thought, like me,
that "The Hague" was a place within Amsterdam? Had no idea that it was
an actual city (about 500,000). In fact, it's been around since the
1200's.

Driving in the city is a joy - the streets are wide and laid out in a logical manner. We get a good feeling about The Hague as a place to stop off. This is further enhanced when we check
into our hotel, The Mozaic. the Mozaic is a very charming boutique hotel located just outside the city centre. Stowed our bags, and headed off for a walk into the center. Word of
warning - when a receptionist tells you that the "walk into the city center takes about 20 minutes" don't believe them!! It ended up being closer to 45 minutes. Still, being the Netherlands, it was flat and easy. Quite pleasant in fact. Wide tree lined boulevards lead across canals, around parklands, into the "old" city. Even here, the streets are wider and and straighter than the usual old cities in Europe.

We found a charming cafe called "Bagels & Beans" to have a bite to eat
and a coffee. What a find. Not one of the shiny plastic cafes that one
usually comes across. Inside it was warm and comfortable with wooden
tables and chairs, book shelves on the walls, and the aroma of what
promised to be a decent cup of coffee. We weren't disappointed - best
coffee in all of Europe. Chatted to the head waiter/bagel maker/owner
and he agreed. In fact he goes to great lengths to train his staff to
make what he considers to be the perfect coffee. The bagels were pretty
good too.

One of the drawbacks of sightseeing over here at this time of the year is time, or lack of it. Not the length of time spent here, but the amount of time you have each day to do things.
It doesn't get light here until after 8am. So after having breakfast and getting ready for the day, it's after 9.30am - day's half gone already. Then the sun starts to disappear by about 3pm and the temperature plummets to just above zero. all up you get about 5 hours worth of
quality time to sight see. Consequently, by time we had walked into the
city, had some lunch and looked around a bit, it was time to start heading back to the hotel. We were hoping to get to see the Peace Palace Library and the Hague Academy of International Law. Might try and see them tomorrow before we head into Amsterdam, its only about a 30 minute drive.