A day trip to den haag

By Aysha Maryam Cassim

I recall my father sharing my great grandfather’s travelogues on his trip to Amsterdam and Hague’s Madurodam in the late ’70s. I found the word Madurodam surprisingly familiar and funny because it sounded so much like a water reservoir in Sri Lanka. 

Little did I know that Madurodam was a famous miniature park in the Netherlands which has been attracting tens and thousands of people every year, since 1952. 

My first Dutch impressions

During my short stay in Dortmund, Germany, I decided to make a day trip to a neighbouring Dutch town. Den Haag/The Hague is about an hour’s train ride from Amsterdam and about 30 minutes from Rotterdam. From Dortmund, it was only a three-hour drive. 

This is how I got to The Hague – a quaint city with beautiful architecture and museums such as Mauritshuis which houses Johannes Vermeer’s much-loved painting, ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’. 

Hague is the home of Dutch Monarch and the seat to country’s administrative offices including the International Court of Justice. The capital of South Holland is also the largest city in Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. 

As we hit the Autobahn and drove towards the North Sea, I noticed the unusual change of landscape and life from Germany to Den Haag. The atmosphere was shifting into a mild, murky, maritime weather. The flat terrains of Holland came to life with a series of postcard views that consisted of an elaborate network of cycling paths, polders, green pastures, waterways and windmills. 

There is a famous saying, “God created the Dutch but the Dutch created the Netherlands.” One-fourth of the Netherlands is located at or below sea level. This is why the French call the Netherlands ‘Les pays-bas’ (low country). 

Over many centuries severe floods devastated the Netherlands, killing tens of thousands of people. Determined to save their homeland and reclaim it from the sea, the ingenious Dutch used their pioneering technology to reclaim land from the sea, lakes and swamps. The extensive system of dikes, dams, windmill water pumps and sand dunes keep the waters of the North Sea from inundating the country.

The Dutch were accomplished navigators and explorers who dominated trade in the 17th to 20th centuries. They established colonies and left significant economic, cultural and political footprints in the territories they controlled. They built forts, minted coins and maintained a navy and army as required. 

Once a major colonial power today, the Netherlands is a great gateway to north-western Europe where industry, agriculture and tourism booms and blooms just like Keukenhof’s vibrant tulip gardens.

Madurodam 

The legends know Hans Binker as the boy who saved Holland. Hans was a valiant 15-year-old boy who saved his whole town from devastating floodwaters by inserting his finger into a small hole in a dyke to stop the waters gushing through. There is a statute of this fictional boy who welcomes you to Madurodam. 

Madurodam aka as the “Little Netherlands” is named after George Maduro, a Dutch resistance fighter in the Second World War who died in a concentration camp. To remember George, his parents set up the Madurodam project. Since 1952, this miniature world is being visited by millions of people. 

Just outside the Dutch city The Hague and the Scheveningen district, you can find Madurodam. It’s an interactive park, which depicts a miniature Dutch town. Every structure here is modelled at a 1:25 scale, presenting the famous port of Rotterdam, the Rijksmuseum, Schiphol Airport, Dam Square and scenes from the everyday Dutch life, connected by animated tracks, carousels, canals and bridges. 

They are meticulously detailed and replicated to resemble its original design. When you peer down the streets of Madurodam, you’d feel like a Gulliver among Lilliputian structures. 

Visiting Madurodam was definitely one of the highlights of my Euro trip. It’s a wonderful way to get to know the Netherlands and experience a taste of Holland within a few hours. 

Amsterdam

There is no other place on earth can boast the artistic heritage, the beautiful architecture, and the eclectic culture quite like Amsterdam. That’s what Pinterest has been telling me for years. It might take a few visits to Amsterdam to discover its charm and understand the Dutch affinity towards their two wheels. 

After whiling away a few hours at the Amsterdam’s museum quarter, ‘Museumsplein’ (a public space in Amsterdam that houses three well-known museums – The Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, and Stedelijk Museum) the day came to an end, painting the city with golden hues of yellow orange, reminding me of Vincent Van Gogh’s post-impressionist colour palette. 

I was devastated that I didn’t have much time to indulge in Amsterdam’s romance and arts. The city of canals, coffee houses and stroopwafels has so much to offer that the transient memories you make will definitely make you come back to Amsterdam at least to try a Hollandse Nieuwe Herring again.