#location: king midas' palace.

[treatian]

The Chronicles of the Dark One:  The Dark Curse

Chapter 144:  What the Dove Saw

Pirithous was not exactly happy when he summoned him into the tower that night. But then, when had he ever been happy to be summoned? In a perfect world, he'd have gone on using Theseus as his spy, as it was now Pirithous was all he had, happy or not.

"I have need of you," he commented as the bird-man stood before him.

"Obviously…what will your bidding be this time, O Mighty Dark One…"

He glanced up at him, very unimpressed with his sarcasm. "A little less cheek, perhaps…"

The boy didn't respond, just rolled his eyes and awaited his orders.

"I'm sending you to King George's kingdom. There's a deal I'm overseeing, and I'd like to oversee it…closer."

Pirithous rolled his eyes and shook his head. "With all your magic…why don't you just do it yourself? Wouldn't it be easier to just take my shapeshifting ability and go yourself?"

He laughed at such a suggestion. "Would you like me to?" he threatened. Pirithous remained silent because they both knew that he didn't want such a thing. Sure, it would free him from being useful, but it would also ground him for the rest of his life. He could take the power, but to never perch in the trees again, to never soar high above the clouds, feel the wind beneath his wings, they both knew he'd be unhappy with such an arrangement.

"Sometimes I prefer 'boots on the ground'…or should I say claws," he finally explained to him. "Besides…I'm a busy man."

"And I'm not?!" Pirithous argued. "My father is unwell, the crown will soon be mine, I need to take a wife, have a child, and prepare to take his place."

"Yes, and you can add serving me to that list." Whine, whine, whine, whine! It was never-ending with him! He wanted to take a wife, but he couldn't imagine one that would like a husband that whined as he did about everything. Pirithous had a kingdom to run someday, but he had the Curse of a lifetime to cast and break. A curse, he might add, that would make his rule a hell of a lot shorter than he would ever imagine. Therefore, his tasks were the ones that would take priority.

"Now listen…in King George's Kingdom, I want you to pay close attention to Prince James, stick closely to him."

"As if I have a choice," he sighed like a bored teenager.

"You don't," he remarked. "Oh! And there's this one other little thing that you might need to know. The Prince recently hit his head…if he or any of his fellow soldiers should call him 'David' a time or two…I'd think nothing of it."

"What's that supposed to-"

"Good-bye!" he shouted, sending him off to a faraway land before he could ask any more questions.

He was busy. He intended to watch David himself, of course, but out in the world, on the way to King Midas territory, he knew that it was unlikely there would be any mirrors to watch, or better yet, hear, from. Aside from that, it wasn't only David he was interested in. Now that he was positive the right twin had the crown, and his future, within his grasp, there was another person he needed to keep his eyes on.

He located Snow White in Sherwood Forest. In order to get to the Dragon, David would have to travel through Sherwood Forest, and he half expected he'd meet the Princess there. But he didn't. He shouldn't have been surprised. He wasn't quite sure how their love story would play out, but he knew that Abigail was going to be part of it. Anything that happened, he figured, wouldn't happen until after the dragon was dead and Midas' offered his daughter to David.

He kept an eye on Snow just as he did David. Sherwood Forest, Midas' Wood, King George's Kingdom, and the outskirts of her own former Kingdom…those were her frequent haunts, and now would be David's as well. If he pulled this off, then they'd be on the road for the next several days giving the pair ample opportunity to meet face to face.

David made it to Midas's Kingdom, and so the hoax began. He watched the pair's interaction, but Midas seemed none the wiser that the man before him was not Prince James. Though it helped, he assumed, that David was always surrounded by George's troops, all of whom were in on the trick, and chosen specifically to make David look good just as he'd instructed. But David…he was an impressive man; well raised. He was good. The kind of person that he could see Snow White falling for easily as opposed to James who was haughty, devious, and spoiled. It was odd how one little detail could allow the future to fall into place so clearly!

David slayed the dragon. To his own shock, he did it on his own. Not George's troops or soldiers, not the special team he'd assembled to keep David alive. David himself was the one who did the deed.

With a bit of luck and bravery and another fallen soldier's sword, he beheaded the creature with a single blow. Afterward, as was custom, the head of the beast was taken back to King George's castle. Royals and their foolish traditions…

Because David had killed the beast, that meant that it was considered his kill, his property. At the castle of King George, where the challenge was issued, that was where the deal between them had to be sealed, the official place that he had to surrender the head to King Midas, in the sight of King George. From his tower he watched as Midas and George did the talking, David stood there pretending, convincingly, that he understood the ins and outs of their movements and negotiations, though he looked a little too mesmerized the moment that Midas touched the head and turned it to gold. And then it happened. Just as he was told it would, but still surprising all the same. When the ritual called for the King to spoil the victor with riches, the daughter, Abigail, entered the room.

Words were exchanged, she looked unimpressed at the boy but eventually shrugged.

David moved forward and began to explain something with a small shake of his head before the King swallowed him up in a hug that lasted too long and yet not long enough! Something important was happening! He was telling him something, obviously enough. But by the time he'd examined the room and found a shiny surface he might peer through to hear what he was saying, it was over; the moment, the words, all of it. And that was why he always preferred to have someone close to the action. When the ritual was concluded, he wasted no time summoning Pirithous back to tell him what happened.

"It was a threat!" the bird burst out the moment he was back. "The King threatened the Prince! He took him aside under Midas' eye and told him that the would kill him, kill his mother, and burn down the Prince's farm if he said anything but 'yes' to the union with Midas' daughter! The Queen has been dead for years! Just what are you playing at?! Who is that in the Prince's clothes?!" he demanded angrily.

He ignored his outburst and kept his hands gathered together in front of him, maintaining his calm demeanor. Whatever Pirithous was feeling wasn't his concern, and he certainly hadn't sent him out there to put it all together on his own.

"Did he say yes?"

"Of course he said yes!" he shouted. "What else would there be to say?! King George is ruthless. My parents want nothing to do with his Kingdom and for good reason. I want nothing to do with it! But I need to know who I'm dealing with before I ascend the throne."

He smirked, but smiling was far from the emotion that he was feeling. He'd put it together and now knew there was a state secret going around. Soon being King would begin to color his thinking and since he'd inherited this job he didn't expect him to be as devoted to it as his dear father had. Indeed, Pirithous made dealing with Theseus look like a pleasure. Perhaps the bird was coming to the end of his usefulness as his rule drew closer. He had a brother, and several cousins that shared family blood, the loyalty he'd demanded from Theseus would work for all of them.

"Worry not, little prince. This is one change that will be of use to you. For if Prince James takes the throne with his bride, I've no doubt that the Kingdom will be a better place under his rule."

He'd hoped that words of prophecy might have had the same effect on Pirithous that they had on Clopin, but instead, the man's eyes narrowed. "Prince James, the real Prince James," he stressed, "is cut from the same cloth as his father. That…man is not Prince James."

"All will be revealed in good time."

But the dove wouldn't let it go. He could see that plain as day written all over his face. The wheels in his head were turning; pieces were coming together. But the full story was still just beyond his reach, and he felt confident that unless he talked to David himself, it always would be. Most of the soldiers who knew who he was had been killed. Midas had no idea. George wouldn't tell for that reason alone. And he was certain that David would keep his secret for his mother's sake, and his mother would keep it for David's sake. Unless David chose to tell Snow White, the secret would die with him. But he could see easily enough in Pirithous eyes that it wasn't good enough for him.

Damn.

"Send me back."

"What?!" he shrieked. "Before you were begging me to leave you be, why would you want to go back?"

"In a few days, the Prince, whoever he may be, and Abigail are moving from King Midas' current palace into his new home. But tomorrow morning the Prince is going somewhere. Before I left, he asked one of the stable hands to prepare a horse for the journey in the morning. He begged the King to excuse him from breakfast and he agreed, reminding him again not to make a choice he'd regret. What is going on? I want to know! If that means I have to go back to find out, then so be it!"

Useful information, Pirithous had always provided useful information and done good work for him, but only so long as he wasn't attached to his work. With emotions that strong, as much as he wanted to see where he would go, he couldn't allow it. Not anymore.

"Too bad!" he laughed, with a snap of his fingers the bird was back in his own bed Kingdoms away from here. With any luck he would know to keep his mouth shut. He'd hate for the family to lose their King and their Prince all at once.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Whatever its precise location, the Tumulus of Midas was but one point in a vast dominion associated with Midas by landmarks from southeastern Phrygia to western Macedonia. The most widespread tradition in the geography of Midas concerns the location of the spring where Midas captured Seilenus (or “the satyr,” sometimes identified as Marsyas). The most famous spring to be associated with Midas and the capture of Seilenus was at Celaenae (later Apamea), at the headwaters of the Maeander River, where both Xerxes and Cyrus the Younger paused on their marches across Phrygia. Callisthenes reports that Midas founded an altar to Zeus at Celaenae, for this was where his son Anchyrus had plunged into a chasm in the earth. Sositheus, a tragedian of the third century b.c.e., describes Celaenae as Midas’ capital, and as the place where the body of Midas’ other son, Lityerses, was flung into the Maeander River. Another spring of Midas and Seilenus was at Thymbrium, east of Celaenae, where it was visited by Xenophon on his way with Cyrus from Phrygia toward Cilicia. Yet another was located at Ancyra (modern Ankara), a city said to have been founded by Midas and visited by Alexander. Farthest from these central Anatolian sites was the spring in Macedonia at the foot of Mount Bermium, where the Macedonian royal dynasty originated, according to a tradition familiar to Herodotus. This was very likely at the site of the Nymphaeum at Mieza, where Aristotle later tutored Alexander in the arts of rulership and in metaphysical matters, and where, as some have suggested, Aristotle made Alexander mindful that he was heir to a kingship that had once belonged to Midas. Ancient historians who recalled the landmarks of Midas, as the foregoing examples show, did so on occasions when these were visited by men seeking to establish or extend sovereignty. The most famous such pilgrimage of power was Alexander’s encounter with the Gordian Knot. The knot itself belonged to the cart that Midas dedicated to Zeus the King, on what was reputed to be the site of Midas’ palace at Gordium. Whether by sword stroke or by more patient means, Alexander was reputed to have undone the knot that held the yoke onto the tongue of this cart, thereby fulfilling a local prophecy that he who undid the knot would rule Asia, or, according to the alternative version, would rule the inhabited world (oikoumene). Midas, in this instance, was clearly the paradigm of worldly rulership. All of the monuments and landmarks associated with Midas were places for contemplation, and possibly ceremonial acknowledgment, for those who sought sovereignty. They betokened the outermost limits of greatness. They were also reminders that those with the greatest wealth and power owed the greatest sacrifices to assure the well-being of their dominions. They also signified, in a mythopoeic manner, the attributes of sovereignty as the personal attributes of Midas. Midas’ kingship was thus the origin and basis of agriculture, according to the legend of Lityerses. And Midas’ kingship was the source of the gold that the earth of Asia yielded, in the Pactolus River at Sardis. For Midas’ personal attribute, the golden touch that was his gift or curse from the gods, was either washed off him by the Pactolus, or transferred to that stream after his death.   In sum, Midas was remembered as a man who had achieved everything men could dream of, and had won everlasting fame. Although certain elements of the legend of Midas, as told by the Greeks, made a farce of his grandeur, the farce was only a reminder that Midas, like every other human being, was mortal in the end. The epigram on his tomb described the forces of nature as reminders of his former greatness. Midas’ more widespread monuments were springs and rivers, and even beds of reeds that whispered his name in the wind. One could say that the memory of Midas had become a feature of the natural landscape.” - Mark Munn, The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion. University of California Press, 2006. pp. 71-73.

[drtanstravels]

“So, statistically, in the Land of the Free you have the least amount of free people. This is a super-simple argument; in Holland you can smoke weed whilst f___ing a hooker in front of a cop. How dare Holland not be called the Land of the Free!” – Jim Jefferies on America and Freedom

I started writing this at about 7am on Thursday morning as we had just returned from quite a long trip, this time to Amsterdam and The Hague for Anna to attend a conference and then a trip to Budapest for her birthday and I’m surprisingly well rested after the flight (more on that later). We have been to the Netherlands several times before, but only to Amsterdam and Utrecht while we were living in Germany two years ago, but this time would be a little different — Yes, we would be spending some time in Amsterdam, but who wouldn’t? It is such a fun city, but the bulk of the Dutch leg of our most recent trip would be in The Hague, the location of Vision 2017, the International Society for Low Vision Research and Rehabilitation (ISLRR) conference where Anna was giving a presentation, and also a place neither of us had been or knew a whole lot about. The second part of our adventure would be a five-day holiday spent in Budapest, Hungary, as a part of Anna’s birthday celebration. Again, a place that neither of us had been and our combined knowledge of the place consisted solely of goulash and salami, however, everyone we knew that had been there absolutely loved it and pretty much just told us to go.

I’ve also written about the ‘T’ Factor on several occasions, my anti-Midas touch, the incredible ability I have to steal defeat from the jaws of victory. Situations such as:

The ‘T’ Factor part 1: Not really trying in my German classes in high school because I thought I’d never visit Germany… then later moving to Germany.

The ‘T’ Factor part 2: Just a day where everything that could go wrong did.

The ‘T’ Factor Part 3: Paying a New York scalper a ton of cash for what I thought would be the only opportunity to see one of my favourite musicians play just as the support act, only to get fake tickets and have to watch from over a fence.

The ‘T’ Factor Part 4: I hate the cold and, fortunately, had never seen snow before we moved to the US. That all changed when we sat through New York’s second-worst blizzard on record.

This latest trip was the complete opposite, though. Maybe I should by a lottery ticket or something!

Saturday, June 24 We had dropped Kermit off at dog-sitter on Friday afternoon and caught a midnight flight to Amsterdam, this time flying Premium Economy, which is similar to regular economy, but you get to board the plane first, have slightly more legroom and can carry a bit more baggage. That extra legroom allowed me to get a decent night sleep on the 13-hour flight, however, Amsterdam is six hours behind Singapore so by the time we got our luggage, went through immigration, took the train from the airport to the city and found our hotel, the Room Mate, it was still only about nine o’clock in the morning. We really wanted to dump our bags and have a shower, but it was too early to check into our room, although they had a massive suite available for a little extra cash. We were only going to stay in Amsterdam for one night so we decided to get decadent. Premium Economy and a hotel suite? I felt like Jay-Z!

A very dark picture of a small portion of our suite

We had slept well on the flight so it was now time to hit the streets. I won’t bore you with the details about Amsterdam because I did that the first time we went there so you can just read that piece instead if you want to get the lowdown. Also, I’m not a huge Jim Jefferies fan, but I used that quote of his because he nailed it when talking about freedom. Americans love to go on about freedom, especially around this time of year as we experienced first-hand when we spent the fourth of July in New York a couple of years ago, but it’s hard to be more free than a country that has had to close prisons due to the fact that they don’t have enough inmates. In fact, they’re even getting kind of creative in handling the situation:

Recorded crime has shrunk by about a quarter over the past nine years, according to the country’s national statistics office, and that is expected to translate into a surplus of 3,000 prison cells by 2021. The government has shuttered 19 of nearly 60 prisons over the past three years, and a government report leaked last year suggested that more cuts were coming.

The relative lack of prisoners has spurred the Dutch to be creative. At jails transformed into housing for asylum seekers, former cells for prisoners have been converted into apartments for families, albeit some with the original cell doors.

At De Koepel, a former prison in Haarlem, refugees played soccer on a large interior courtyard that doubled as a soccer field. Some of the converted jails also have gymnasiums, kitchen facilities and outdoor gardens.

That’s pretty free. Anyway, our hotel was a little bit out of the way, but essentially all of Saturday was spent walking around Amsterdam, checking out the shops and hanging out, but one of the best sites we encountered was the market in the town square, one which had a mix of secondhand goods and food, including great cheese and some spectacular oysters. A few scenes from the day:

Pubs open for breakfast beers

Anna and her houseboat

I love me some cheese

This cat just fell asleep on me while Anna was trying on dresses

Boris Johnson’s mobile bar

These guys were actually really good

Not sure how you get a mermaid pregnant

I once tried for hours to open an oyster, this dude just did it like it was nothing!

So good!

Someone’s excited

A Citroen in my favourite colour

Outside Anne Frank’s house

Horses for courses

‘Shroom shop

Afternoon libations

Just strolling around

My back was a bit sore from the flight so we pulled up a seat outside a bar on one of the canals later in the afternoon and had a couple of beers while we watched trashy hen’s nights and stag dos get started, as well as a woman that had had a ton of cosmetic surgery who was so baked she couldn’t even stand properly. We also stopped off to get some crêpes at one stage and only in a country with legal weed would the really stoned dude in front of us order one with Nutella and bacon. Eventually the jet-lag kicked in, plus we had walked about 20km (12.5 miles) and the weather wasn’t that great so we went back to the Room Mate and had a really good dinner in the hotel restaurant before going up and making the most of our suite, despite the fact that it doesn’t get dark until about 10:30pm. Who cares, we could hit the town properly tomorrow.

Sunday, June 25 Sunday followed a similar pattern to Saturday, just strolling around the city, but first, we’d need something to eat. I don’t usually eat breakfast, that’s just more valuable time that I can spend sleeping, but we woke up early due to jet-lag so why not? Anna found a great breakfast place that did a heap of different bloody marys, as well traditional Dutch waffles, so we checked out of our hotel and then that would be the plan.

I got the bloody kimchi and Anna had the bloody bacon to go with our waffles and then it was time to look around town again.

Inside Gollem Biercafe

We spent most of our time walking around different areas of the city, doing a lot more shopping and stopping off at bars such as Gollem Biercafe for the occasional beer or four. One major problem with old Dutch buildings is that they tend to have extremely steep staircases with narrow steps, essentially just ladders, rendering them almost impossible for someone my size to use, and the Gollem was no different, requiring me to bend and twist like an accordion to go down the steps and through the tiny doorway to use the bathroom. I always thought the Dutch were supposed to be one of the world’s tallest nationalities. Anyway, we enjoyed checking out all of the quirky stores and secondhand shops, but we couldn’t do it all day, my back was aching again and we had to go back to the hotel to collect our luggage and then take the 30-minute train ride to The Hague.

The Hague is another place that we knew very little about, besides the fact that it was centre for the Dutch government and one of the host cities for the United Nations. Fortunately, wikipedia is here to shed a little extra light on the topic, as per usual:

The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands, and the capital of the province of South Holland.

With a population of 520,704 inhabitants (as of 1 April 2016) and more than one million inhabitants including the suburbs, it is the third-largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands, which constitutionally is Amsterdam. Most foreign embassies in the Netherlands and 150 international organisations are located in the city, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, which makes The Hague one of the major cities hosting the United Nations along with New York, Geneva, Vienna, Rome, and Nairobi. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to live at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, together with Queen Máxima.

We also never realised that The Hague would be home to some of the greatest seafood we would ever encounter in our lives, as we would soon find out. We arrived at the B-Aparthotel, checked into our room, and then looked for somewhere to go for dinner, stumbling upon a place called Het Gouden Kalf in Scheveningen Harbour. We just didn’t realise that it would be one of the best decisions we would make. We made the 30-minute walk down to the harbour, passing a giant van that strongly resembled the one driven by Rocksteady and Bebop in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles en route. Anna initially felt like a lamb rack for dinner, but I told her that clams were “the sheep of the sea,” due in part to the little furry bit at the opening. It all made perfect sense in my mind at the time. When we arrived at Het Gouden Kalf we were each treated to a seven-course set menu meal that could have the main dish upgraded to Dutch lobster for an extra €7.50 (approx. AU$11.20), a decision we obviously made. Here are a few sites along the way, plus what we ate. Unfortunately I can’t remember exactly what each dish was, but I’ll try my best:

The Ninja Turtle van

Outside Het Gouden Kalf

Seared tuna

Tandoori chicken with yoghurt

Clams, the sheep of the sea, served with a foam soup

Cod and sea-sheep with an asparagus sauce

Lobster with shaved truffle

Pickled pear with cranberry cheese

Summer berries

Fairy floss

When the waitress asks you if you want freshly shaved truffle on your lobster, you get that shit shaved! The food was spectacular, but we were certain we had been undercharged, however, it turned out that great food is really affordable in The Hague. We’d need to walk off this meal, so we hoofed it back to our hotel and collapsed in front of the TV for the night.

Monday, June 26 It was our first full day exploring The Hague and this is a cool city, unfortunately we just started in a bit of a dodgy neighbourhood. We love markets so we made our way down to the main one in The Hague and it wasn’t pretty, however, yet again the food there was great. There wasn’t a whole lot to see so we got some smoked fish and some herring sandwiches among other things and then found our way to the nicer part of this very artsy city, our hands reeking of fish.

One of many strange cars we saw on this trip

There are ducks everywhere!

This dog walked up and just started licking me

Smoked fish in the market

No, this isn’t minced meat, just a minced meat-patteren pillow in the market

A cool statue in the city centre

I love art, but I hate going to galleries and exhibitions in Singapore because they are full of screaming children running around, touching and climbing priceless works while adults push in front of you, also feeling the need to make physical contact with everything in front of them. This isn’t the case in Europe and one of the most famous sites in The Hague is the Mauritshuis:

The Mauritshuis is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands. The museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 841 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings. The collections contains works by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen, Paulus Potter, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Hans Holbein the Younger, and others. Originally, the 17th century building was the residence of count John Maurice of Nassau. It is now the property of the government of the Netherlands and is listed in the top 100 Dutch heritage sites.

The gallery is best known for housing Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, a piece which I could never see what the big deal was about, but there are also plenty of other works by Dutch masters that I like there, particularly those by Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens was a Flemish artist whose works were strongly influenced by Caravaggio, another one of my favourites. The Mauritshuis was definitely worth the visit so I took pictures of several of the pieces I particularly liked, as well as the obligatory Girl with a Pearl Earring shot, however, I was unable to find the details for all of them. As usual, these photos don’t do the paintings true justice, but I’m sure you could find clearer images of them online if you wish to see them better:

‘Portrait of a Man’ (possibly Peter van Hecke) and ‘Portrait of a Woman’ (possibly Clara Fourment), Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1630

‘An Old Woman and a Boy with Candles,’ Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1616-1617

‘Vanitas Still Life,’ Pieter Claesz, c. 1630

‘Flower Still Life with a Timepiece,’ Willem von Aelst, c. 1663

‘The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp,’ Rembrandt, c. 1632

‘Girl with a Pearl Earring,’ Johannes Vermeer, c. 1665

After the Mauritshuis we grabbed dinner and then went to a bar for a shisha and a few quiet drinks, but we couldn’t have a big night — Not only was Anna giving her talk at the conference the following day, it was also going to be her birthday.

Tuesday, June 27 Anna had been preparing for her talk at the Vision 2017 conference for quite some time and today was the day, it was just a shame it had to land on her birthday. Fortunately for her it went exceptionally well, so well in fact that she was nominated for the New Generation Investigator award. This nomination, however, proved a little troublesome — If Anna was a finalist, she would be presented with the award on Thursday morning at roughly the same time we were supposed to be making our way to the airport for our flight to Budapest. Only time would tell.

But we had no time to worry about Thursday, it was Anna’s birthday and we had some celebrating to do. Anna came back to our hotel room straight after her talk and we headed into town to party.

Peace Palace

Getting an iced-latte

Anna’s surprise bowl of explosive ice-cream

Posing out as usual

Another cool sculpture, this one displaying the old and the new

We walked into town, past the Peace Palace, and took a seat at ‘t Goude Hooft to grab a coffee to get our day started. We got our waiter to take a photo of us and I posted it on Facebook with a birthday message, tagging the cafe in the post. An employee must have seen it and brought out a small bowl of ice-cream with a sparkler in it for Anna’s birthday, which we both thought was pretty cool.

The next thing Anna wanted to do was check out the M.C. Escher museum. Escher is another artist that I have always loved and Anna became a bit of a fan of his work after we went to an exhibition of his in Singapore. As I mentioned earlier, galleries and exhibitions in Singapore are painful so it would be great to see his work in his hometown. A little bit of background information on Escher for those who don’t now him:

Maurits Cornelis Escher (17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972), or commonly M. C. Escher, was a Dutchgraphic artist who made mathematically inspiredwoodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints.

His work features mathematical objects and operations including impossible objects, explorations of infinity, reflection, symmetry, perspective, truncated and stellated polyhedra, hyperbolic geometry, and tessellations. Although Escher believed he had no mathematical ability, he interacted with the mathematicians George Pólya, Roger Penrose, Harold Coxeter and crystallographer Friedrich Haag, and conducted his own research into tessellation.

Escher’s art became well known among scientists and mathematicians, and in popular culture, especially after it was featured by Martin Gardner in his April 1966 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. Apart from being used in a variety of technical papers, his work has appeared on the covers of many books and albums.

I’ve got several books of M.C. Escher’s work so I didn’t particularly feel the need to take a whole lot of photos, but here are some of the ones I did get of other parts of the museum:

The key to getting Escher’s perspective

Looking up an infinite tunnel…

…and down

Anna’s head in the tunnel

A cool chandelier in the museum that Anna liked

We continued to walk around after the Escher museum, just a whole lot more shopping, but the shops in The Hague don’t stay open particularly late, usually closing between 5-6:00pm, so we went home and relaxed for a bit, then it was time for dinner.

While Anna was at her conference in the morning I had been checking out restaurants and found Catch by Simonis, another fantastic looking seafood restaurant in Scheveningen Harbour. Catch is huge restaurant, seating approximately 500 people and is famous for its seafood platters so I suggested that to her. When we arrived we were told we could wait for an outside seat or immediately take one indoors. We took the indoor seat and asked to be moved outside when a place became available, but the waiter essentially ignored us for about half an hour until we told him not to worry about, then we waited quite a while longer for our drinks. When the time came to order food, we asked for a seafood platter for two and a risotto, only to be warned by the waiter that the platter would be more than enough. He wasn’t kidding!

Beginning with a birthday drink

The bottom level of our platter…

…and the top

Anna looking somewhat intimidated by dinner

I think we can do it

Mission accomplished

The food was unbelievable, extremely fresh and there was so much of it. In the end it was up to me to finish it up due to the sheer quantity of it all. It would’ve been a perfect night, but the poor service stuck in Anna’s craw a bit. Yet again, we had to walk this one off so we sauntered home, past Planet Jump, an old disused church that has now been filled with trampolines, and back to our hotel to settle in with a few more drinks.

Wednesday, June 28 It was our last full day in The Hague and Anna was spending all of it at the conference while I just wandered around the city, checking out all of the places that I hadn’t had a chance to yet.

After Anna had finished we went down to the seaside for dinner. One thing we noticed as soon as we arrived in The Hague on Sunday night is that there are seagulls everywhere and they are absolutely enormous! These had to be the biggest seagulls we had ever seen anywhere in the world, so much so that Anna soon dubbed me the ‘Hague Seagull’. We tried to take photos of them, but seriously, pictures just don’t capture the sheer size of these birds. We found a place to eat where you get to grill an unlimited amount of fresh prawns quite cheaply so we settled in for the night and stuffed ourselves with crustaceans while taking in the scenery on a cold summer’s night.

The view of the pier

A panoramic shot of the beach and its food stalls

It’s seriously a lot bigger than it looks

Anna cooking up a storm

Mmmmm…

One of many weird sculptures near the beach

And another

The Dutch leg of our journey was fantastic and was constantly flecked with little luxuries and extravagances. So far we had:

Flown Premium Economy class. Sure, it ain’t First Class or Business Class, but it’s a hell of a lot more comfortable than regular Economy class.

Stayed in an enormous hotel suite.

Eaten lobster with freshly shaved truffle.

On a separate occasion eaten a seafood platter that may have subsequently rendered some forms of shellfish as endangered species.

But what does the rest of the trip hold? Will Anna win her award? Will Budapest live up to all the hype? And will the high living continue?

Stay tuned for part two of Traveling in Opulence – The Reverse ‘T’ Factor to find out!

  Traveling in Opulence – The Reverse ‘T’ Factor pt. 1: Amsterdam and The Hague "So, statistically, in the Land of the Free you have the least amount of free people. This is a super-simple argument; in Holland you can smoke weed whilst f___ing a hooker in front of a cop.

[treatian]

The Chronicles of the Dark One:  The Dark Curse

Chapter 78: Useful Information

He should have known. He could have guessed, the moment that Nimue had told him a Dark One had tracked the potion he needed to Oz, it should have been unfailingly obvious that it would be with Zelena. How could it not be? That girl spent all her time in the Emerald City, in the palace that had been built by the Wizard, who had collected magical artifacts to use with others. Naturally, the Elixir of the Wounded Heart would have been with him. Or rather it had been until Zelena turned him into a flying monkey. Now the Elixir was in her possession. He hadn't a clue if she even knew what she truly possessed, but he knew one thing…he couldn't go after it himself.

Zelena was smart, she was a clever little witch, and though they'd been moved she'd had those shoes in her possession long enough to do who knew what with him. Even if she hadn't planned on despising him and leaving the day that they'd parted ways, he trusted that her castle was fortified against him. He trusted that if he appeared in that realm, she would know about it and have none of it. No, she couldn't kill him, but he also couldn't risk her finding out the reason that he was there. If he wasn't successful, then she'd protect that potion with her life, and he'd never see it…if it was even necessary. Nimue had said that the issue with his heart going black was a risk, but one that was a long way away. He didn't even know if he'd ever come to truly need it in his lifetime.

Still, he'd searched through the bobbles and instructions that Jefferson had left him and found only one way into the Land of Oz. It was a single potion that when sloshed onto a mirror would take the individual to the room of doors they'd encountered when they'd gone to the Land Without Color. This meant that it wasn't a direct line to Oz; it was simply a direct line to any realm someone wished to go to. That made the potion highly valuable. Was this really what he was willing to waste it on?

No, he wasn't. At least not at first. It would be years, Nimue had said, and so he'd begun to bother himself with other things, like master the use of the fairy wand he'd acquired so long ago. But while Nimue had said the change to his heart was not a threat, it was clear that one of the Dark Ones disagreed. The moment he'd made up his mind not to use the potion, he'd felt that sting across his chest once more. He'd diverted the magic, used his own to chase it away. But someone in his head was playing tricks on him, and every time he got too involved in doing something else, the pain would spike. Clearly, someone disagreed with the great Nimue, and they were sending him the message the only way they could, but who was it? If he knew who he could talk to them himself and not just through Nimue! He could search through memories and materials, it would give him a hint! But when he tried to isolate a voice, come up with the name of the Dark One he should speak to about the pain, none arrived, and he was certain that if he talked to Nimue again, she'd give him the same answer. That left him with one option. He had to send someone for the cordial. It was the only way he'd get peace and be able to work.

So who was he to send? Well, the most straightforward answer was the least likely at the moment. Jefferson. He could talk to Jefferson, the boy still had his hat, he could simply have him go and retrieve it, and then he'd have no use for the potion at all.

But he couldn't. He'd been watching Jefferson ever since he'd left to go to his wife and new baby. Six months ago, his wife had died. He'd been left alone with his daughter, and his mental state…it was dark. He watched him enough to know that when he was with his daughter, his face lit up brighter than the sun, but the moment she was asleep, he hung his head, he cried, he surrendered to a different kind of mad darkness. He considered asking the old fellow to help, even wondered if it might give him a sense of purpose again, but as he watched him sit by the fireplace one night, head in his hands, shoulders hunched…he couldn't bring himself to do it. It had been years since Jefferson had gone to Oz, even then, he'd had issues with Zelena and the Wizard, now he was grieving and out of practice. Maybe one day he'd be fit for service again, but at the moment he was far from the ideal candidate.

He needed someone else. Someone talented enough to sneak into Oz undetected, fetch the cordial, and bring it back. He needed someone who could be bought, someone desperate enough that they might try something crazy.

"Show me the one I need," he ordered his glass ball one night when he'd been fiddling with his potions and felt the tug on his heart again. The image that appeared before him was of a boy, someone he'd never seen before. He was handsome, golden locks that he was sure women would swoon over. He appeared to be at a pub, sitting alone, nursing an ale. As he idly twisted the cup in front of him, he could make out the image of a lion tattoo on his wrist. Interesting, though he wore an apron, there was a hint of something more to him. But what was it?

He gasped.

He felt his hand automatically clutch the crystal ball in his hand, ensuring that he wouldn't drop it, but then surrendered himself to the inevitable. This was a vision. One of the future but the very near future.

Tomorrow.

It would happen tomorrow.

As soon as he knew it, he registered the fact that he was seeing back inside that pub his mystery man had been sitting in. That very man was now working the bar, pouring ale, getting drinks, but also listening to a man who was sitting there.

John, the Seer whispered in his ear. Little John.

Looking the man over, he suddenly had a new definition for the word irony.

"I have a fresh lead," the man stated to his potential thief. "King Midas's carriage is passing through town tomorrow, and he'll only have a few of his guards with him."

"You know I haven't so much as lifted a penny since Marian and I got married," the man retorted. "Look around. This is my new life."

"But you're not a barkeep…you're a thief."

Ah yes, his potential thief was gaining more and more of that potential every moment. And now he had a name for the wife. Marian. That was useful information.

But before he could contemplate the importance of that, the vision shifted. The pub he was in was suddenly very quiet. And his thief was talking to a man dressed in black clothes. A guard…one of Regina's? It was the right color. That gave him a potential location, somewhere in Regina's Kingdom.

"Well, I had to see this for myself," the guard stated in a mocking tone. "Robin of Locksley walking the straight and narrow. Nice apron. M'lady…"

Suddenly the vision was filled with a pretty woman, olive skin and dark hair, who appeared less than excited to see the man before her. He on the other hand was very excited. Robin of Locksley and his wife Marian. Not only did he have their names but also a location. Locksley located just north of Sherwood Forest and certainly a part of Regina's Kingdom.

That was all valuable information, but he could feel his chest squeezing now for a reason far different than his heart problems. He'd be damned if he forced this vision to end now. He wanted every last detail of it. Even the unamused "Sheriff" reply the woman gave was informative.

It told him she detested him with every bone in her body.

"What can I do for you, Nottingham?" Robin questioned, pulling the guard's attention off of his wife. It was a very telling kind of attention he'd been paying her. The kind that made his own stomach curdle. He may have been the Dark One, but at least he had a moral standard he'd never sink below, unlike this fellow.

"What can you do for me?" the Sheriff asked, helping himself to some ale. "Well, for starters, your taxes are overdue."

There was a bang. In his head, he saw someone pound a notice into the door. Tax notice. More useful information.

"I need time," the man insisted.

"Well, because I'm in a generous mood, I'm giving you two days. After that, I'll have no choice but to shutter your tavern and throw you in debtor's prison. And poor old Marian here will have no arms to hold her but mine."

"She'd never be with you," Robin growled, staring at the man.

"I can speak for myself," Marian insisted. "I'd never be with you," she stated, looking at the Sheriff with even more disgust than he'd thought was possible to muster.

"Well, when you are on the street, and your husband is in jail, perhaps you'll see my appeal."

"I'll find your money. Somehow."

"Really? Two days."

He pulled himself out of his vision with a smile. This conversation hadn't happened yet. Tomorrow afternoon it would, and then the countdown would begin. In three days, he'd have his potion.