June 17th – George and I have always wanted to see The Hague, site of the International Court of Justice.  Since it was on our way from Bruges to Amsterdam, this seemed like a good time to make the visit.

On our way we stopped at Deltapark to show George Jr the delta work project that had impressed us so much on our 2012 trip to The Netherlands. An engineering marvel, further information can be found at www.deltawerken.com (click on the British flag to read it in English).

We arrived in The Hague in time for a quick lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon at the Escher in the Palace Museum. M.C. Escher was a mathematician and graphic artist who George feels some kinship with, since his geometry prof, Dr. Coxeter, and Escher collaborated periodically. We have at least one book of Escher’s art at home. Escher was a master of the visual paradox – water seeming to run uphill, people seeming to move both up and down a staircase, and many others. The museum houses about 150 prints, which are rotated from time to time, on the first two floors and a fun interactive exhibit on the third floor. It was well worth the two or three hours we spent there.

The museum is housed in the Winter Palace of Queen Mother Emma of The Netherlands and in each room there is a description and picture of how the room would have been used during her time. I was fascinated by the light fixtures in each room which were crystal chandeliers in various figures – a fish, a bird, a bottle, an artist’s pallet, etc. When I asked if these were original to the palace the answer was ‘no.’ It seems that it is Dutch custom to take all the light fixtures with you when you sell a house. The new owner has to replace them. This is what happened at the palace. Subsequently a competition was held and a Dutch artist won the task of designing a chandelier for each room. They are all made of Czech crystal.

We have really appreciated having GPS in the car and getting around The Hague was made much easier except that one needs to put the right street name into the system. Our first attempt at finding our hotel took us to an area that George Jr described as “the projects.” It was certainly a working class area and there were no hotels. Our second attempt was successful, although the street where the hotel was located was a no car zone. We had to park in a parkette and drag our suitcases for a few blocks.

We decided it was time for Indian food for dinner and found a small restaurant on the same street as the hotel. The owner asked where we came from and got very excited when we told him we were from Mississauga. He has a cousin in Etobicoke and he has visited twice. After dinner we wandered through town which was quite lively for a Friday evening.