The group are walking to the Panorama Mesdag which is a 360 degree painting of Scheveningan from many years ago and has real sand next to the painted sand in the picture. It is fantastic as you can’t see where the painting ends and the sand begins. I didn’t go in today but have been to see it a few times in the past.
I am meeting them at 11:00 by the Panorama Mesdag to transfer them back to near the hotel where they will walk through the city and I will meet them again near the Mauritshaus at 12:15. Then we go to Delft and then I take them out in the evening for dinner!
I decide to go for a nice walk this morning and want to see how I get to the front of Central Station! I also want to see where they are eating tonight and see if I can get the coach nearby.
The restaurant is 50m away from where we pick-up at the Mauritshaus so that is easy. I gio in for a coffee and ask about parking and am shown a road not far away that has many free coach bays. This is also the way to the front of the station. I will never forget this now!
The more I see of Den Haag the more impressed I am, it really is a beautiful city and the perfect antidote to the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam. I would love to come back without the bus and have a proper look around. I take a gentle walk back to the coach and drive the couple of hundred yards to the Panorama Mesdag to wait my charges.
They all appear and I take them to near the hotel and they go off for their walk. Seven of the group who don’t walk so well are staying on the coach with me.This would have been a lot easier for me to pick up the non walkers and those walking would have been quicker walking from the Panorama Mesdag than getting on and off the bus for a five minute ride around the block.
At 12:15 I pick the rest up and we make the short journey to Delft.
Delft is a lovely town that is very coach friendly. As you approach the dropping off/picking up point in the centre there is a large round silver bollard blocking your way with a traffic light on each side. If there is a space in the dropping off bay the bollard lowers into the ground the lights turn green and you proceed. There is also the same system for going out.
The coach park is behind the Hampshire hotel which is very close to the centre but there are only 7 bays and when I arrive they are all taken. I go for a drive to another parking area further out of the city but it is full of lorries and apart from a college there is not much there.
I have a quick recce to the Delft Pottery, which I have been to many times, and introduce myself before driving back to the coach park. You drive under a 3.7 bridge which I can just get under then at the end of the road, with no warning, are bollards blocking the way! I’m glad I came to have a look as I have to reverse a couple of hundred metres before I can turn off towards the main road!
Back at the coach park I have a short wait before a space appears and settle down to some work sat in the sun. It has turned into a glorious day.
I pick them all up at 15;15 and we are back at the hotel within 30 minutes.
I have time to park, print off another proof and go back for the coach.
I pick them up again at 19:30 and take them to their restaurant which is about 5 minutes away.
I park the coach and join the group for dinner and enjoy a nice salad and superb fillet steak with homemade chips.
Leaving the table before dessert and coffee, I walk back to the coach and decide to go and try to find some fuel.
I know a Shell garage on the road to Scheveningan close to the Tulip hotel we have used previously so that is where I head for.
I end up in Scheveningan! And I only have 15 minutes before I am due to pick the group up at 10:00!What a rush it turns out to be but I make it at ten on the dot and they all start coming out from the restaurant.
It is a quick journey back and I manage once again to grab my little parking space. Where I park is outside of a magnificent building with guards on duty all day and occasionally you see the guards driving a horse and carriage. I didn’t know what this building was but it is part of the Royal Palace and houses all of the Queen’s carriages and horses and backs out onto the Royal Gardens which are open to the public during the day.
The guards on duty now say hello in the morning!
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