Day trip to Den Haag

Even after a week of on-the-go travel around Scotland, my parents still had energy to do a day trip during their week in the Netherlands and settled on the Hague (den Haag). I didn't know anything about it other than that there is a beach town very close and that it is one of the headquarters of the International Baccalaureate (IB) school program that Pete teaches. 

We took a train from Schiphol airport in the morning, got some information from the tourist desk, stopped for our pancakes and poffertjes and then headed off to see the sights. The first striking difference between the Hague and the other cities that we have visited in the Netherlands is the juxtaposition of the modern sky scrapers so close to the historic downtown. In Amsterdam, we had "rooftop" drinks at the Doubletree hotel as part of Pete's school orientation and it was on the 11th floor! A teachers who came from Hong Kong was very amused by this. There are also very few canals in the the Hague so the city has a very different feel. The quaint streets were lined with royal crown lights- possibly just for the holiday season. 

We walked through the streets to the Peace Palace, opened in 1913 and funded by Andrew Carnegie. This houses the International Court of Justice and the Court of Arbitration. You can only enter on business, but there was a helpful visitor center, which highlighted the history and examples of cases arbitrated there. We were there to hear the carillon in the bell tower as well.

After the tour, we headed to the newly renovated Mauritshuis, home to many great Dutch paintings. The museum is in an intimate mansion next to Parliament on a peaceful rectangular lake.

Mauritshuis museum in yellow

Parliament

I didn't realize until we got there how many world famous paintings there would be. Girl with a Pearl Earring, View from Delft, Goldfinch, The Anatomy Lesson to name a few. I'm not really a museum person, but this one was really special. Maybe I was just wooed by the secret elevators hidden behind wall panels that we got to take with Jude's stroller!

Jude's interest in museums is increasing every month!

"Hello, girl!" 

Very excited to see Goldfinch after reading the book earlier this year.

Obligatory tourist photo outside Schiphol Airport!