Stopover in The Hague

In July we made our semi-annual pilgrimage to the US. As usual, we made a stopover in the Netherlands before continuing on. Just prior to leaving we were informed that one of the friends we were planning to stay with had fallen from a ladder and received a head injury. It was a shock to learn that he had fallen (a normally careful Dutchman) and we hoped that he was okay. In addition, due to their sudden inability to host us, we quickly needed to sort out where we might stay in the Hague. We would still be able to see them, and some other friends from elsewhere in the Netherlands, but for shorter duration and under different circumstances.

We settled on a hotel in the downtown area that was not too far from the train station (logistically useful) but also accessible to some interesting things to do. Given that we would have more time on our own, this seemed like a good base for exploring the city.

In fact it worked out quite well. We arrived at the airport in Amsterdam early morning on a Friday after the night flight from Nairobi. We put our bags in storage and headed towards the train, conveniently located within the air terminal. We weren’t in a huge hurry given that theoretically we wouldn’t be able to check in to the hotel until the afternoon. The weather looked to be a bit unsettled as we arrived in The Hague and sure enough, it began to rain about halfway into our fifteen minute walk to the hotel from the station. We had to be a bit careful about getting wet since we had limited clothing options for our 2-night stopover.

After a relatively short wait in the lobby (long enough for me to fall asleep since I hadn’t slept on the night flight), we were able to check in a bit early. Once settled, we set out on getting acquainted with the downtown – a part of the city we hadn’t frequented much in the past. Over the next couple of days we would mix touring around by ourselves and hanging out with our friends. Turned out that our injured friend had a Mercedes Benz symbol-shaped crack in his skull with some blood clotting. The first evening we spent with them he was well enough to prepare dinner but not well enough to stay up the full evening. He needed lots of rest so after a couple hours he excused himself and went up to lie down. The second night he seemed a bit better and made it most of the evening. Hopefully there’ll be no long-term consequences of the concussion. When I hear about these head injuries I think back on some of my own, particularly one when I was 17 where my concussion led to temporary amnesia (American football injury). Scary stuff.

These are friends of ours from our time in Burundi. In fact there are a couple families that we are still in touch with that we were able to see on this trip. It’s the sort of thing people always do. You meet some people, whether it’s during a certain chapter in your life or on holiday, and you say you’ll stay in touch and meet up at some point but most of the time people never do. In this case, we have. In fact we’ve seen these people about every year since they left Burundi in 2015. Obviously it’s been facilitated by our travel through Europe a couple times a year. It may not be as easy if that were to change. But for now it’s been great to stay connected (and explore their city).