I'm editing this post for 27 March right now and it's really late (23:44 as I start this), but I want to do it because if I don't do it tonight I'll be even more behind because Saturday will be pretty busy.
Yesterday we went to Scheveningen. But first Joep and I rode to school on bikes, which was very fun! It is a lot different and more hectic when riding over here, but it could have been a lot worse had we been in a larger city.
We walked from the school to a bus stop and just got on the bus. I really love how simple and easy the public transportation is here, more on that later.
We arrived in Scheveningen and we made it to Scheveningen Prison, where we were going to get a tour. The man that gave us the tour was very informative, and I really like the Dutch prison system because it reflects the Dutch outlook on society. The system is a lot different than America, because near the end of an inmate's sentence, they are put into the open system which helps them transition back into the real world. The open system helps the inmate secure employment, and then they are actually allowed to leave the prison for work and return to prison after work. On the weekends they are allowed to return home. The Dutch are very relaxed about this and they hardly have any trouble with people not returning to the prison. The Dutch system is also very different in that if an inmate escapes, it is not a crime for him to do so, so the prison sentence just continues when he is captured and no additonal time is added unless the inmate commits a crime while escaped. The prison is home to the International Criminal Court and has a U.N. Detention unit, which has housed infamous prisoners such as Slobodan Milošević, the former Yugoslavian president convicted of war crimes. A very unique thing for us was that we were actually able to go inside a prison cell that was used by the Nazi's when the Netherlands was taken over. The Nazi's kept some Dutch prisoners there, and they were executed nearby. In the cell there were poems written on the wall for their loved ones and tally marks for the days that they had been there, very chilling. This cell is actually only open a couple times a year because it is owned by a organization for the family members of those executed, so it was even more unique for us. There is much more to tell about the prison, it was very interesting, but as of now I can't really think of more to type.
After the prison tour, we made our way to Scheveningen Blvd. where we ate lunch at a seaside restaurant (it was cloudy and raining). I had an "aged cheese" sandwich, which was very good and my brother Daniel had kroketten, which I wish I would have gotten now that I know how it tastes.
We then got on a tour bus to Hoek van Holland and Maeslantkering. The Maeslantkering is very interesting, we were able to observe it and saw a demonstration of it on a small scale model. It is used to block the opening of the port of Rotterdam during very strong storms to fight against flooding. More can be read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeslantkering
After coming back to the school, we rode our bikes home in the rain, (fun!) and soon after we decided to go out to get something to eat. So Joep, his father, and I drove to Leidschenhage, a nearby shopping mall, to get some food. We went to HapSnap (a common snack shop that sells kroketten) and McDonalds (theirs is a lot nicer and the food is really good, actually the salad menu is a lot bigger over here than in America) and we brought the food back home for the family. We ate, Joep and I played some poker online, and that's about it.
We walked from the school to a bus stop and just got on the bus. I really love how simple and easy the public transportation is here, more on that later.
We arrived in Scheveningen and we made it to Scheveningen Prison, where we were going to get a tour. The man that gave us the tour was very informative, and I really like the Dutch prison system because it reflects the Dutch outlook on society. The system is a lot different than America, because near the end of an inmate's sentence, they are put into the open system which helps them transition back into the real world. The open system helps the inmate secure employment, and then they are actually allowed to leave the prison for work and return to prison after work. On the weekends they are allowed to return home. The Dutch are very relaxed about this and they hardly have any trouble with people not returning to the prison. The Dutch system is also very different in that if an inmate escapes, it is not a crime for him to do so, so the prison sentence just continues when he is captured and no additonal time is added unless the inmate commits a crime while escaped. The prison is home to the International Criminal Court and has a U.N. Detention unit, which has housed infamous prisoners such as Slobodan Milošević, the former Yugoslavian president convicted of war crimes. A very unique thing for us was that we were actually able to go inside a prison cell that was used by the Nazi's when the Netherlands was taken over. The Nazi's kept some Dutch prisoners there, and they were executed nearby. In the cell there were poems written on the wall for their loved ones and tally marks for the days that they had been there, very chilling. This cell is actually only open a couple times a year because it is owned by a organization for the family members of those executed, so it was even more unique for us. There is much more to tell about the prison, it was very interesting, but as of now I can't really think of more to type.
After the prison tour, we made our way to Scheveningen Blvd. where we ate lunch at a seaside restaurant (it was cloudy and raining). I had an "aged cheese" sandwich, which was very good and my brother Daniel had kroketten, which I wish I would have gotten now that I know how it tastes.
We then got on a tour bus to Hoek van Holland and Maeslantkering. The Maeslantkering is very interesting, we were able to observe it and saw a demonstration of it on a small scale model. It is used to block the opening of the port of Rotterdam during very strong storms to fight against flooding. More can be read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeslantkering
After coming back to the school, we rode our bikes home in the rain, (fun!) and soon after we decided to go out to get something to eat. So Joep, his father, and I drove to Leidschenhage, a nearby shopping mall, to get some food. We went to HapSnap (a common snack shop that sells kroketten) and McDonalds (theirs is a lot nicer and the food is really good, actually the salad menu is a lot bigger over here than in America) and we brought the food back home for the family. We ate, Joep and I played some poker online, and that's about it.
Me at Scheveningen
Old gate of Scheveningen Prison
