A Day At the Hague

 We had a day of playing in Amsterdam, nothing too strenuous at the Botanical Gardens, now it was a day of museums. Well, really, it started out as only 1 museum.

I had wanted for us to go to the Hague as there was one museum that I wanted to go to, the Mauritshuis House. This is the museum where Vermeer’s “Girl with The Pearl Earring” is hanging as well as several Rembrandt’s, other Vermeer’s, Rubens and Steen.

I had attempted to purchase tickets for the Mauritshuis but there was nothing available. Instead, I found the Escher Museum and since Dale and I really like Escher, bought tickets for that.

We took the train, catching it seconds before it pulled out, a good sign!

We arrived in The Hague and walked to the Escher Museum using Google, which took us in a total circle. I did see the Mauritshuis and stopped to shoot photos on the way to Escher.

The Escher Museum is located in what was the Royal Palace. We totally loved the exhibit although, I did get really irritated at some of the pieces as they are so mind blowing. I'd look at the piece and after studying the piece lose the 1^st prospective, then lose the 2^nd.

The top floor has interactive exhibits, which are not hands on with Covid. But we had fun on that floor and took some videos for the grandkids.

These are just sheets of metal

We were really hungry after the Escher but I knew that they did not have anything gluten free. Instead, I told Dale that we should go to the Mauritshuis and just see if we could get in. And because the Mauritshuis was only minutes away that is what we did.

We quickly walked over to the area of the Mauritshuis and as I was walking to where I thought it was, Dale called to me, “here it is, the museum is here”. We went up the steps and were told, yes there are tickets. We bought our tickets at ½ price as one whole section was closed.

Well, there were no paintings from Vermeer or Rembrandt. Only doll houses set up and some local stuff. Dale was convinced that the Vermeer and Rembrandt were in the closed section. I looked at the handout and realized that we were at the wrong museum. We quickly picked up our backpack and left.

A few feet away was the Mauritshuis, just where I knew I’d seen the sign when we’d walked in the big circle. We quickly went to the courtyard entry. I told the people at the front that I couldn’t buy tickets online before and we wanted to see the paintings so badly, if only there was some tickets available. They made some phone calls and sure enough there was space for us to enter. Boy, did we hurry in, pay, put the backpack in a locker, and scoot up to the paintings.

Wow, a room full of Rembrandt, another several of Vermeer, Steen, Rubens and so many others. We were in paintings heaven!

Girl with the Pearl Earring

https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/explore/history-mauritshuis/

The Mauritshuis House is a house that belonged to Johan Maurits. The house and his collection are controversial as he made his money by the slave trade. I’m attaching the link to the museum so that you can read for yourself. But we loved the paintings.

By the time we were done with the Mauritshuis we were freezing cold and starving, and the café was closed. We were told to go to the square across the street for some food, where we’d likely find something we could eat.

Risotto and Prawn Curry

Like most squares, the restaurants spill out onto the sidewalks and the square. We found one, the waiter went and got the allergen book and went over it with us. A dinner of Risotto with mushrooms and tomatoes, and a curry with prawns while we sat by a fire was what we needed. Dale had really great beer and I had some wine. We got to the train with a full mind and belly for our ride back to the hotel.