One of the things I had to accomplish while I was in Holland was to get a new passport.
I could have done this at an embassy or consulate in the states but since a new dutch policy now requires fingerprints to be taken this cannot be done in every one yet and this meant I would have had to go all the way to San Francisco!
Unfortunately, as a dutch-person-living-abroad the only place you can get one in Holland is in The Hague (and a few cities along the eastern border with Germany), which is about 2 hrs from where I am staying, and you have to both apply and pick up in person.
Both times my Mam and sister, who had taken a week off from work, travelled with me and we took the opportunity after completing the official part of the journey(s) to do some sightseeing.

The first time we went by train since they expected the roads to be icy throughout the country and perhaps even some more snow coming.

In The Hague we visited the 'Binnenhof ', a complex of buildings that houses the House of Representatives, the lower but more important of the dutch democratically elected Houses of parliament. We took a guided tour and also visited the 'Ridderzaal' where the Queen holds her annual speech at Prinsjesdag.

Neither of us had ever seen the inside of these buildings, not even my sister who has seen almost everything noteworthy in Holland, and we all thought it was very interesting.

Three days later I could pick up my passport, yahoo!!

Lotte decided to join us (what a nice surprise that she still wants to hang out with her old and boring aunt) and since we went by car this time we could detour a little easier on the way back. So after having lunch at IKEA, and as usual ending up buying all kinds of stuff we really weren't going to get at all, we visited the little fishing town of Volendam.





Volendam is a popular tourist attraction in the Netherlands, well-known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents; as a matter of fact you can have your picture taken in those clothes but since we're not Japanese we off course didn't do such a silly thing!
This time only my mam and niece had never been here but it's a cute little town worth seeing again so we wandered around for a while until the cold wind forced us back in the car and back home.

Although the snow melted quickly after the wind switched to the West it stayed very cold and very windy for the rest of my stay.
Nothing out of the ordinary for a dutch winter and a perfect time to snuggle up with hot chocolate and some good pastries and work on a big jigsaw puzzle with my mam or visit family and have some
delicious meals together that last all evening while drinking wine and catching up on each others lives.

I especially enjoyed spending time with my nieces Lotte and Babet who all of a sudden have changed from the cute little girls they were into real persons (but still cute off course) with surprising and interesting opinions and both with a wicked dry sense of humor!