Holland offers large and small urban spaces where miss, know special places, people befriend and admire organization and the quality of life of the Dutch. One of those cities that you must know is The Hague.
Modern and traditional at the same time, you can walk The Hague and at every step you will come across with the smile of its people and a thousand entertainment options to enjoy during your time at it. One of our recommendations is that you spend part of your schedule to visit one (or more) of the museums of The Hague.
The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis located very close to the political heart of the Netherlands, in the center of The Hague. It has a wonderful collection of art of the great masters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The painting girl with a Pearl of Johannes Vermeer is the highlight of the museum and is known as the “Dutch Mona Lisa”. At this time is in reforms and until 2014 you can’t visit, but aim for the future.
The Binnenhof has been for centuries the political heart of the Netherlands. All political and state affairs were discussed and are still struggling here. The buildings of the Binnenhof (Parliament) and its long history of leftovers they deserve dedicate some of your time. You can take a guided tour through the Binnenhof (Hall of Knights) and know the Senate or House of Parliament. The tour begins with an introductory video that explains the history of the Dutch Parliament and the buildings of the complex. Reservations are highly recommended.
The Hague Municipal Museum has the world’s largest collection of the painter Piet Mondrian, including his latest abstract work Victory Boogie Woogie. Also displays a fine collection of modern art, including works by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele, Wassily Kandinsky, Louise Bourgeois, Francis Bacon and many others. It is located in an extraordinary Art Deco building designed by the architect HP Berlage, known as the Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Panorama Mesdag painting is an illusion of 14 meters high and 120 meters in circumference. It is the work of Hendrik Willem Mesdag, his wife and some friends. It is one of the highest quality and the world’s largest panoramic paintings. This canvas will make travel to the year 1880 as it shows a moment of that time on the beach: the sailors dragging fishing boats on the beach, it makes a military practice, and many people enjoy the sun and the beach. You can even see the wife of Mesdag painting on the beach.
The Louwman Museum in The Hague holds one of the private collections of the world’s most impressive cars. It exposes several hundred cars and extensive collection includes all types of vehicles, from vintage and classic cars to Formula 1 cars and hybrid cars. Some of the museum’s iconic pieces are unique, as the car-boat, car-beach or car-swan. It also has famous cars like the Aston Martin that James Bond drove in the film Goldfinger and the Cadillac Fleetwood custom of Elvis Presley.
Maurits Cornelis Escher was a graphic artist who lived between 1898 and 1972. It showed a perfect mastery of drawing impossible situations and optical illusions. Escher in the Palace (Escher in het Paleis) is a permanent exhibition which is open to the public in an ancient palace of the Royal Family located in the historic center of The Hague. The impossible universe born Escher hand belongs to the collection: water floating upwards, never-ending stairs, crawling reptiles forming vicious cycles between a desktop objects, beyond the paper they are drawn to reappear later, hands coming out of a piece of paper and draw themselves … Ideal for lovers of drawing.