Koninginnenach 2008

After my last post, I thought it was time for a more positive one so here's the photo tour of the Vaughn celebration of Koninginnenach (the night before Queen's Day).

The night before Queen's Day, The Hague offers lots of free concerts and other activities in the city. We had a couple of friends over beforehand for drinks and appetizers (Charles made guacamole!) and then we hit the town. Here are some highlights.

Before having friends over, we visited the Kermis or Carnival in the city center...



Charles won me some stuffed puppies so hopefully Remus and Berlin won't be jealous...



We also encountered a giant order of fries...



After some homemade guac and wine, we hit the streets which were crowded and full of drunk people wearing orange (the national Dutch color)...



But we were in good company so it was a fine evening...



You can see the rest here.

For the actual Queen's Day, we avoided the crowds in Amsterdam, stayed home and played Grand Theft Auto 4.

Our worst customer service experience to date

Since moving here we've had to put up with non-attentive wait staff and often had to be a bit obnoxious to flag someone down to get a refill on a drink that's been empty for over an hour or a check that's already been requested twice.

Yesterday was a new low for Dutch customer service. Charles and I decided to take the poodles to Scheveningen which is a small beach town near Den Haag. After letting the little guys run around in the sand (dogs aren't allowed on the beach after May 15) we decided to have dinner at Strandrestaurant Blue Lagoon.

We sat down and ordered drinks and bread right away which came out quickly. After a few attempts to flag the waiter down we made out dinner order: kip (chicken) sate for Charles and sashimi with a side order of french fries for me.

Over an hour later: I had my sashimi but nothing else. We flagged down our waiter to get refills on our wine, but didn't want to be rude an ask about our meal. We waited about another thirty minutes and then asked our waiter when he thought the fries and kip sate would be coming. He said did not hear us order these so he didn't hear us order two out of the three items! This was crap because I ordered my meal and Charles ordered his. So he just didn't hear Charles at all? And he heard half of my meal? Be real and admit your mistake.

So about fifteen or twenty minutes later we had out food (how long does it take to make fries and chicken on a skewer?), but were tired and wanted to leave so we asked for the bill. The bill, of course, charged us for every single item (even the mayonnaise with the fries which proves he heard the fry order!). No discount.

So we're in a country that doesn't tip as much as the US does and we feel like we had a terrible dinner experience. We decide not to tip at all. The waiter also left his little card reader machine on our table so Charles hand it to him on the way out.

He gets all moody and says something to the effect of "No tip? Were you not pleased with your service here?"

Us: "No, we weren't."

Him: "Well then, I'll never serve you again."

We walk away because we don't plan on coming back and don't want to start a scene. It ruined our evening and I am now a bit weary of going to beach restaurants.