Netherlands – The Hague

From Amsterdam I travelled down to The Hague arriving at the Central Station and headed towards the historical centre.

The Binnenhof was behind a mass of scaffolding and undergoing renovations. Thankfully, the Mauritshuis art gallery was open and wasn’t too full, so it was possible to have a good look and appreciate paintings such as The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Vermeer and The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp by Rembrandt. Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man is a collaboration between Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder with Rubens painting the figures and Brueghel painting the landscape and animals.

The Escher in Het Paleis art gallery celebrates Maurits Cornelis Escher who is justly famous for his drawings / lithographs / engravings containing optical illusions. The museum goes through his career from his early days where he produced fine and precise images from his travels particularly in southern Italy. The draughtsmanship is extraordinary.

Then the optical illusions began when Escher had to stay at home more. He travelled through his imagination and started drawing impossible scenes where stairs rise on all four sides of a square, water in a stream flows into a waterfall that creates the stream. On the top floor are hands-on optical illusions based on Escher’s work. The museum shop has an amazing array of cards / notebooks / document holders all showing Escher’s work.

The Hague is a very pleasant place to stroll around expecially by the Hofvijver, a lakelet that mirrors the surrounding architecture, and along Lange Voorhout with its embassies – including The Embassy of The Knights of St John of Jerusalem – and the Hotel des Indes, a bright yellow building on a corner.

Other items of note include the Gevangenpoort Museum, the Oude Stadhuis, Grote Kerk, the Rotunda – the tiles!, and the De Passage gallery including the Chapeau! mobile and an English bookshop.