Duck watch!
Vredespaleis, home of the International Court of Justice
Luckily, I snapped these before 3 tour buses containing people of multiple nationalities pulled up
I arrived at the Peace Palace at 11:20, but the tickets to the 2pm and 3pm tours were sold out already - they can be booked up to a week in advance. I was very annoyed (but then someone hasn't been inside either, so).
World Peace flame. It's quite cheesy - each country gave 1 stone, and they combined flames from 5 continents.
I then proceeded to Binnenhof - where the Dutch parliament convenes.
Binnenhof
Flags of the Dutch provinces
Statue of King William II. He was involved in Waterloo, or something. No mention was made, of course, of the Belgian revolt. Notice the anti-pigeon devices on his head and epaulettes! The horse's mane had them also, but they're invisible here.
Given my luck, it wasn't surprising that the building was closed to the public that day.
Binnenhof
Fountain in Binnenhof
Binnenhof. It has a very medieval feel to it, cars and bicycles notwithstanding.
Next I went to the Mauritshuis, an art museum built in the Italian style. They had a special exhibition called Droom van Italië ("Dreaming of Italy") with paintings from 1500-1900, and it was so big that it seemed to have displaced some of their permanent collection (which didn't even occupy the whole of the top floor). At first I was annoyed, since the banner said those with the museum card still needed to pay €4 to enter, but surprisingly I was let in gratis - the joys of having a Youth museum card. I don't understand why museums always like to combine special exhibitions with their permanent collection and charge a higher price - some people aren't interested in the special exhibitions!
The audioguide was included in the admission price, so it was quite nice. Furthermore, the audioguide included headphones instead of making you hold the stupid thing up to your ears (and disturbing other people with the noise in the process).
I was wondering why the exhibition was called "Dreaming of Italy". It seemed these artists found their home countries so bad that they had to dream of italy.
(Press images also available on the museum website)
Goltzius - Apollo Belvediere, 1592
Posthumus - Landscape with Roman Ruins, 1536. There's a quote by Ovid.
Paulus Bril - View of Bracciano
A woman's portable seat - I want one!
Lorrain - Pastoral landscape with the Ponte Molle, 1645. Damn glass.
Lorrain - A seaport, 1644.
Caspar Van Wittel - View on the Molo in Venice
Hubert Robert - Hermit praying in a Ruinous Gallery, 1760
The ladies 'have penetrated the world of the hermit'. One thinks the flowers for the Virgin Mary are for her and another is trying to disturb him by tickling him with a reed.
Claude-Joseph Vernet - Waterfalls of Tivoli, 1740-1750
They had some paintings that looked like photographs (until you looked more closely). It says something about the skill of the painters. But this effect was only apparent in very small or small paintings. If someone could achieve this effect with a large format, I'd take my hats off him.
The audioguide talked about the Italian landscape lit with 'Scandinavian light, which is hard light' (and also described as 'bright'). So the light in Italy is soft? Uhh. I suspect the intensities are more in the minds of painters and art critics, and reflect the character of a country and the characteristics of painting styles more than the light in a country.
They had an oil sketch (preparatory sketch) for a huge painting in the National Gallery, London which was so huge it couldn't fit in the Mauritshuis. The least they could've done would've been to display a photo of the huge painting beside the oil sketch!
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - Pope Pius VII in the Sistine Chapel, 1810
Supposedly this was a protest against Napoleon, since Pope Pius VII was never in the Sistine Chapel (?)
Arnold Bocklin - Villa by the Sea, 1878
"Longing for Italy is actually a disease" - some artist friend of Feuerbach. Haha. The conclusion of the exhibition: "Italy is within us". Bah.
Rembrandt - The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, 1643
The audioguide numbers for the permanent collection were cunningly hidden on inconspicuous slates far below the paintings. I only discovered them by accident. Gah.
Addendum: Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring
Given that this is probably the most famous piece in their permanent collection, I was surprised it wasn't specially treated or located, and there was no huge crowd.
The turban gives her an Oriental look. I knew it wasn't just me!
Rogier van der Weyden - The lamentation of Christ
Avier camp - Ice landscape. On the left people have fallen into the ice and someone is coming with a ladder. Near the bridge a couple has fallen down and the woman is wearing nothing under her skirt.
Rubens - Old woman and a boy with candles
In the museum shop they were selling extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and linguine. All Italian of course. Gah. There were also these strange long bendy plastic coated pencils. I wonder how you sharpen them.
The museum cafe was called the Bertolli cafe. Of course it had a counter of Bertolli sauce bottles.
Nabucco is coming to Den Haag in Mid-August. Gah. Why is there no season now?!
Monument to William Frederick, Prince of Orange-Nassau. He did something in 1813 and 1814.
I arrived at the Prison museum a few minutes too late for the tour, which only started at the start of every hour, so I went to one museum in the vicinity which sounded interesting - the Panorama Mesdag, which had huge cylindrical paintings surrounding you. Unfortunately the Museum card was not accepted and I didn't want to pay €4 - the paintings (as reproduced in the souvenir area) didn't look that interesting, and I didn't like that style of painting/sketching anyway. I ran back to the Prison museum and caught the 4pm tour just in time.
Inside, I saw just why visits were only with a guide - people had vandalised the place with lines such as "FC Utrecht"; there was also a man in a suit following behind the group to make sure no one touched anything. The tour was in Dutch, but €1 was a reasonable price to pay for a booklet with a translation. I enjoyed it substantially more than the Conciergerie despite it being less historically significant, which tells you something about how badly the Conciergerie was presented.
Burger King had this sign proclaiming that their "Big King" had 21% more meat than a Big Mac.
The McDonalds in The Hague where I stopped to get a caffeine boost didn't have anyone collecting money by the toilet. There is hope for this country yet. Then again, the large Coke I got wasn't filled to the brim - there was a "0,5L" mark at the side below the top of the cup. Grr.
Chinatown was marked out on one of those signs showing tourist where the attractions were. I wonder how big it is.