The Hague is where the Dutch government sits and is practically a suburb of Delft (or vice versa). It was a ten minute train ride to get there. Our other choice for a day trip was Rotterdam but we chose The Hague because it has the Maritshuis Royal Picture Gallery and we wanted to see more of the Durch masters.
We had a fantastic day in The Hague! The Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery was wonderful and the city was having their annual UiT Fest to kick off their cultural season and this included an art fair!
Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery
This art gallery was the reason for our visit and it lived up to expectations. Mauritshuis was built in 1644 for Count Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen who was governor of the Dutch colony of Brazil. At his death, the state took it over but it wasn’t until 1822 that it became a museum featuring art that had been collected by the Dutch royal family. The collection continues to grow and the stories of how certain paintings came to be here is interesting.
This is a more intimate display of artwork than at many other museums. Rooms are relatively small and often have a featured artist. For example, there are two Rembrandt rooms as well a room each for Jan Steen and Johannes Vermeer. They also have an app that provides information on each piece of art in the collection.
Rembrandt 
Jan Steen 
Vermeer
This being the year of the 500th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death, he had a more extensive collection on view than normal. They are doing a lot of work to validate the progeny of the Rembrandt paintings and are very clear on which they have discovered to not be by the master. The whole experience was enlightening and the artwork was fabulous. We really enjoyed it and would strongly recommend it if you are ever in The Netherlands.
UiT Festival and Art Fair
This was an added bonus to our day in The Hague. We didn’t even know about it until Dave saw some tents out one of the windows of Mauritshuis. In fact, we thought it was just a relatively small craft fair until we walked around town a little more and happened upon the end of the music part of the festival.
Making Stroopwafels 
Percussion Band
The art fair was fun. We love going to these types of events. Dave bought me a pair of pearl earrings from one booth. But we had the most fun with a ceramic artist. She was originally from England but married a Dutch man. She explained her technique to us and we just had to buy a piece from her. So, while I failed to buy a genuine piece of Delft porcelain, I now have a modern and unique piece of Dutch ceramic art.
Me and the Artist 
The piece we bought was inspired by a house in Delft that we had a photo of!
We ended our day in The Hague with an extraordinary seafood dinner at an outdoor cafe on the square near the train station. Called the high sea, it included everything from smoked salmon to shrimp to mussels and mackerel. It was marvelous! All in all, The Hague made for a great daytrip.
Our next stop takes us to Belgium and Bruges. http://europeyourway.net/bruges
