Big chain hotels in major cities can throw up some unusual bed fellows. This morning at the Novotel in The Hague, Netherlands, the lift was full of grim-faced men all heading off to the 9th annual Global Refining and Petrochemical Summit at the convention centre next door. The oil refinery business isn’t doing so well because of industry over-capacity and environmental costs, so they were there to work out how to make more money.
By the evening, in the ebb and flow of arrivals and departures, a group of cheerful British women filled the hotel foyer. They were floristry students on a study tour, in Holland to visit the tulip fields, observe flower auctions, visit growers and learn more about flower arrangement.
Although neither group would have known it, they both had links to another gathering, just down the road at The Hague’s famous Peace Palace, home of the International Court of Justice. Members of the world’s oldest international women’s peace movement were meeting there to mark their organisation’s centenary.
