City of Peace

Why is it that often, when I'm on holiday, I end up not sleeping late and walking the whole day in my bathrobe? The gods know I would love to do just that.

Today, I was to pick up a colleague who lives in The Hague. We were to spend a greater part of the day just strolling and chatting and, oh yea! visiting the Palace of Peace ('vrede' = 'peace'), which had long been on my mind. Much earlier in the week, she phoned me that she had the flu; she could barely speak but I could make out that she was intending to get well really quick so that we could go out. I told her not to worry, there'll be other times. As I feared, she didn't feel well enough to join me today and, besides, she didn't want to infect me, which, of course, I appreciated. Nevertheless, I would have liked to go out with company. Hubby was not in the picture because the tickets had already been bought online and our names were printed out on them, complete with passport numbers and dates of birth, and they were not transferable.

Picture-taking is not allowed inside except in the Visitors' Centre, so, naturally, I took shots of the displays and parts of the short info film. The weather had started out fab, blue skies and all, but clouded over by the time I reached The Hague. I had thought of posting one of the shots of the palace but I wasn't entirely happy about the outside shots -- too much grey, although not too dark, or I had to take off too much shadow from the palace to counter the grey and so make the shot too 'made up'.

So this is the shot I ended up with, a display showing what the Peace Palace is basically about -- the site of the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration, always among nations. If there is a case against individuals (like Karadziç or Charles Taylor), it takes place in another building in The Hague, which is the International Tribunal (for War Crimes and such) and not here. A case such as might come up between Russia and Ukraine would be handled here. I even saw the courtrooms and the seats where the judges, delegates and ambassadors and foreign ministers sit. You can read the info in the link.

One thing I do notice just after the last day of work is that tiredness catches up and in a sneaky way, too. It wasn't all that exhausting this afternoon, and I was able to cruise on the A20 and discover loads of windmills (be still, my heart) along the way, but I knew that the battery was running out. Three hours of nap before dinner and I'm ready now to get back to bed.