Existence of Chris: Den Haag

This weekend we visited The Hague. Known Den Haag in Dutch, it is officially called 's-Gravenhage which means "Count's Hedge" in Dutch. It is not the capital of the Netherlands but is the home of the Dutch parliament and also the royal family. End geography lesson.

Lots of green areas even in the city

The city felt really relaxed and seemed to have a much different demographic of people than Amsterdam. There were much fewer tourists, and people seemed older. That being said, The Hague is a big city and we only spent a few hours in the centre, so it's not a lot to judge by.

Binnenhof overlooking the Hofvijver river

We first visited the M.C. Escher museum, an artist whose trippy and mind-bending drawings I first saw quite a few years ago but had no idea he wasa Dutch until last week. The museum was full of his confusing but fascinating drawing which explore the infinity of space and eternity of time through equation based tesselations and unusual perspectives which remain confusing even after the third or fourth look.

Escher museum, in a former royal palace

M. C. Escher drawings

The Binnenhof is a cluster of important and historic buildings in the centre of town. It was quite a beautiful area with a nice courtyard in the centre, next to the Hofvijver river. It was a really interesting contrast with skyscrapers in the background behind these medieval aged buildings.

Dutch house inspired skyscrapers in the background

Binnenhof courtyard

We took a guided tour around a building that was once the prison 500-600 years ago. Unfortunately the tour was in Dutch only but it was still really interesting.

The trams are red in The Hague!

The Hague is possibly best well known internationally for its role in international politics and war crime tribunals. We visited the Peace Palace (Vredespaleis) which holds the International Court of Justice and various other international law bodies. While we could not actually go in, there was a small but informative tourist centre, and the palace itself was a really beautiful building to see.