I must elaborate on the time I spent with Petra in The Hague. As soon as I arrived on the train, about a 40 minute ride from Amsterdam, we rented me a bike. I had left my Amsterdam bike in the infamous 3 story bike parking garage: The train station is downtown, so Petra took me to a phenomenal coffee shop near the center, then we viewed a few historic looking governmental buildings.

Petra grabbed her bike and we rode off to Delft, home of Vermeer and oh-so-quaint. The bike paths are amazing, you can ride all over this country with ease, literally from end to end. There are people in their 70s doing 40K routes, and there are always strategically placed cafes in the middle of nowhere to replenish your coffee supply...specifically Petra's coffee supply;) Once in Delft, we ate at a cute restaurant along a canal. Unfortunately, I'd had a bit of a time the night before (don't hit the town with a bunch of 23 year old New Orleanians when you are not 23). Needless to say, I puked up my fresh squeezed orange juice and Petra had to finish my delicious goat cheese salad. Following that event we strolled around the town a bit and toured Vermeer's house. It had a great expo on his lighting technique, one of his key attributes.

We then rode back to The Hague where Petra had plans for us to go to the beach and generously allowed me to wear some of her beach clothes...which consisted of nothing but Spandex! "How European!" I exclaimed in delight. So we rode our bikes to the Beautiful cost and milled around in Spandex like it wasn't a big deal. We watched the sun sink at the close of an incredible day.