WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2012

The reason we are here at The Hague is to attend the International Association for Court Administration conference. I am a member of the Association and David came along to volunteer. As former court employees we are very interested in this subject matter. We said we would help at registration or wherever we were needed. Coincidentally, a Court of Appeals Judge from Oregon was flying in to be on a panel at the conference. Since I knew him, I was asked to meet him at the airport this morning and escort him on the train to The Hague. Sheryl is a founding member of the organization and she and Noel are both Officers and Board Members. They had a day-long Board Meeting to attend so they were out of the picture. David, Sue, Carol, Sandy and Diane had a day of sight-seeing planned in Amsterdam. We all took the tram to the train station and the same train towards Amsterdam. I got off at the airport and they continued on.

I arrived at the airport in plenty of time to meet the judge's plane. It was delayed about 20 mins. which gave me time to find where the platform was for the train back to The Hague. I wanted him to think I was very familiar with the whole situation and very efficient. Luckily I recognized him when he walked out of the terminal -- it's funny how he has aged since I knew him about 15 or so years ago! It's surprising because I haven't changed a bit. He recognized me too and off we went to catch the train back to The Hague. Yes, he was very surprised that I knew my way around so well (ha!) and said many times how efficient it was to get right off the plane and onto the train. We had a great visit on the train and talked about all of the judges I knew in Portland and what everyone was up to. We arrived at the train station in The Hague and took a taxi first to his hotel and then I returned to my hotel. I have to say it made me a little homesick for Judge Redden and all of my friends in Portland.

The conference is being held at The Peace Palace. The Peace Palace is considered the seat of international law because it houses the International Court of Justice which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague Academy of International Law and the Peace Palace Library. It is the most beautiful building you can imagine with a magnificent welcoming hall that takes your breath away. The building was constructed starting in 1907 and completed in 1913. It was funded by Andrew Carnegie. I could go on and on about its beauty but I'll just say it is an honor to even see the Peace Palace and attend an event there.

After fetching the judge from the airport, I went over to the conference to help with the set up for registration. I met some very cool people there! I believe there are about 345 members here for the conference representing 43 countries. What an incredible group of people. Because I was here last year as part of the group of people who selected the location, I made some international friends then. Noel from Ireland, of course, and a few others. It was so much fun to meet up with them again and catch up. I must thank Sheryl for inviting me on the planning trip last year and getting me involved in the organization.

Back to the other group . . . they all arrived in Amsterdam and searched for a place to have breakfast. Hardly any restaurants were open but they finally found one. They had traditional breakfasts but David and Diane had egg salad sandwiches for breakfast. David said it was really good! The first place they visited was the Anne Frank House. Sheryl, Noel and I visited it last year and it is so, so interesting. Carol and a few others mentioned that it made them sad to see it. After that they got on a "hop on, hop off" boat and toured the Amsterdam canals. They all enjoyed that very much. Then David and Carol went to the Rijksmuseum and Sandy, Diane and Sue "walked the streets" of the Red Light District and walked through the Amsterdam Market which did not impress them too much. They all hopped back on the boat to the train station and although they did not meet up there, they all made it back to the hotel safely. It sounded like they all had a great day!

We all attended the conference welcoming reception in the evening which was held in the great hall of The Peace Palace. We were welcomed by dignitaries whom I don't remember except one was the Mayor of The Hague. He wore a cool ceremonial necklace which I assume indicated his position and David, of course, wanted one!!! I saw a few more friends there which was fun. It ended around 7:30 and we all met back up at our hotel. The plan was to go to the same restaurant David and Noel had gone to the night before because they liked it so much. David and I went ahead to get a table but the restaurant was full up! Turns out Holland was playing in the the soccer finals (sorry I don't know anything about this) so there were many groups settled in for the night to watch the game. The hostess told us about another restaurant close by but we never found it. The group had many discussions about what to do for dinner and we finally admitted defeat and trudged off to the local Dominos's pizza and got pizza and cheese bread and took it all back to our hotel to eat and visit. Yes, we are extremely embarrassed that we had Domino's pizza in The Hague. Oh well, it was getting very late and we were all really tired! It was actually the first time Noel had eaten Domino's food -- I'm sure it was a big treat for him. Ha! Soon after dinner we all went to bed to get ready for another fun-filled adventure on Thursday.