Cut trees

Walking in the rose garden of Westbroek Park... I cant wait for June when 20.000 roses from 300 varieties will be blooming.... Expect some nice flowery posts then! I just also read that an international rose competition is occurring in July with rose growers from all over the world gathering here, hoping to win the coveted "Golden Rose of The Hague" for their roses!

As you can see looking at those trees, there is still a long way to go before the garden gets its full shape. In the background, you can see one of the two WWII bunkers I was looking for last time when I posted this.

Atlantic wall

These 2 bunkers are part of a bunkercomplex North of Scheveningen on the Noorderstrand which was built during WWII and form part of the Atlantic wall. The German Atlantikwall was built by the German occupation forces in the period 1941-1944 along the coasts of France, Channel Islands, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Denmark. The main goal was to prevent allied landings on the shores of these countries. During this period a total of 14.000 heavy, concrete bunkers were built.

On this picture you can see an "open gun platform" on the left and a "671Sk" bunker on the right. Most of the bunkers lays under the sand. There are plans to establish an Atlantikwallmuseum in these bunkers. If you are interested in looking at other pictures of WWII sites, then you should visit this website.

You cannot go too close to them as they are now housing some rare species of small brown bats that are protected!

War memorial (1)

There are many war memorials in The Hague. This one stands on the Vondelstraat, and is a tribute to the Berger family who lived on that square and was on 16 May 1944 deported to Germany with 18 other Gipsy families from the Hague. 245 people left, only 30 came back.

I have been tagged today by Don from Everyday Rotterdam. Thanks Don!
Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs

Here are 8 facts about me:
1. I have been lucky enough to live in Montpellier, Barcelona, Paris, London, Amsterdam and now The Hague!
2. I spent 6 months in Bogota (Colombia) as a student, and would never ever forget that time...
3. I usually do not answer to any chain tagging, but coming from my favourite community, I had to answer!!
4. I love cooking.
5. I love walking in the dunes in the early morning (when the sun is shining).
6. I am very new in photography, but love this way of communicating.
8. I would like to live in the mountains once.

Tagging have been going on for a while now, I was not sure I could came up with 8 names to tag, but I just managed! Here you are! Joann, Smilnsigh, Alice, Connie, Mountainboy, Gagah, Xana, and fenix!

Lonely man

I just love the early hours on the beach. I took this photo this morning in Kijkduin, the second sea-side resort of The Hague after Scheveningen. Hardly anybody except a lonely fisherman, horse ridders and dog owners!

Kijkduin was established in 1923 by the developer Joh. D. van der Houwen. Architects Bijvoet and Duiker were the inspiration and architects for a 126 residence village often called 'Meer en Bos' (sea and woods). Most of the houses have been destroyed during WWII by bombs and the building of the Atlantic Wall.

House on a bunker

After having missed the two bunkers yesterday in Westbroek Park, I had to post today the picture of this private house being built on top of another WWII bunker on the Badhuisweg in Scheveningen. You can see the expected end result here. Apparently, this was a munition bunker with 3m thick reinforced concrete walls, capable of resisting 750kg bombs. At the end of the war, it automatically became the property of the Dutch State, until it was privately bought in 2003. For the whole story in Dutch, click here.

I am very curious to know how a private person can buy a bunker (and for what price), and have the idea of building her own house on top of it. Also what do you imagine the dark room will be used for (recording studio, movie theater...)?

Rose garden

Beautiful Sunday morning in the rose garden of Westbroek Park. So peaceful and quiet....On the picture, one of the 16 statues that stand there.

Looking for the history of the garden, I just read here (in Dutch) that two bunkers from WWII still stand somewhere around and are used as storage rooms for flowers in the winter! They have been hidden so well that I missed them this morning. Need to go back to look for them!