My first visitors!

"Fish and visitors stink after three days" - Benjamin Franklin

Last week I had my very first visitors come to stay with me here in the Netherlands and I am happy to say that Franklin was wrong in this case!

Hannah (left), Alice (centre) and Elizabeth (right)

As Hannah arrived a day earlier, she sampled the delights of Maastricht whilst I was at work and we picked up Alice and Elizabeth from Schiphol on Friday evening.

On Saturday we hired some bikes from the Rijwielshop at Den Haag Centraal station and set off on a tour of the city (see map).

On the beach in Scheveningen

On our way we saw many of the popular sights in the city, including the Binnenhof, the Peace Palace and the seaside resort of Scheveningen. To the girls' credit not only did they order their food from Simonis in Dutch, but they did the same when buying the ice cream!

Enjoying kibbeling and frites in boat shaped trays!

Later that afternoon we put Hannah on the train to the airport and headed home to get ready for the evening. We had a great meal at Plein XIX, after which we went on our second tour of the day - around the bars of The Hague! My main achievement for the day was being able to book the table at the restaurant over the phone entirely in Dutch!

The next day, after a lengthy lie in, we took the train to Leiden and had a pleasant lunch at a café on the canalside, where Elizabeth took the opportunity to try out kroket. Her response? "Lekker" of course!

Mmmmm... lekker! Eating al fresco at Dende in Leiden

But our main purpose of getting the train to Leiden was in fact to visit Keukenhof to see the tulips. Although it was a little early for the all the tulips to be in bloom, there was still many flowers in bloom and the pavilions were stuffed with flora and fauna. You can see a selection of the photos I took of flowers here.

Posing in front of the tulips at Keukenhof

Our last day together was spent in Amsterdam, where we arrived early to join the long queue for the Anne Frank House. Despite waiting for just under an hour, it was definitely worth it. After this we went on a cruise around the canals of Amsterdam, which included an encounter with the police boat as we go a little too close to the Hermitage during the controversial visit of Vladimir Putin!

So after dropping off Alice and Elizabeth at the airport, I concluded that my first attempt at hosting friend in the Netherlands was a success! The question is, who will be next?