The Hague is a beautiful city. I arrived on a Saturday, and there were lots of people celebrating in the streets, with orange hats and garlands, I later knew it was a big national holiday, the King's Day. I spent all afternoon walking around the city, enjoying its lively squares lined with cafés, its lovely architecture - the Binnenhof, the Peace Palace, the many nice shops.
The next day I headed to Amsterdam, to meet a Facebook friend - I like to know my Facebook friends live, I have met several interesting people this way who became good friends. While waiting, I strolled along the canals of this most beautiful city, and visited the Rembrandthuis and the Portuguese Synagogue, passing by the sleazy Red Light District, that I always found more depressing than exciting.
The Rembrandthuis is a wonderful museum - the epoch reconstitution is excellent, the studio is especially interesting, with the pigments used to make the colours and the several props for the paintings. The prints and paintings collection is also beautiful and most informative about the painter and his times.
The Portuguese Synagogue is most impressive, it gives one the notion of how prosperous the Jewish people expelled from Portugal were, and it's funny to read the Portuguese words on the inscriptions.
Then my friend showed up, and we had a wonderful time, talking and walking along the canals and the Vandelpark. Several streets were reeking of urine from the huge amounts of beer that had certainly been drank on the holiday, and the locals only started showing up on the streets by mid-afternoon. The Hockney exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum was sold out, so I couldn't see it - too bad, but nevermind, I don't care about these minor setbacks on holidays.
We ended the day with a great Indonesian dinner at a nice restaurant - I had never tasted Indonesian cuisine, and I loved it, a perfect blend of spicy and sweet dishes.
I visited Delft the following morning - another beautiful Dutch city, with canals, lovely façades and churches, the Vermeer centre interesting, although not nearly as much as the sight of his original paintings, as I could confirm that same afternoon at The Hague. I didn't climb the church tower due to my fear of heights, but enjoyed visiting the church anyway, and then sat at a café terrace in the square reading and writing - one of the great pleasures while travelling.
Back at The Hague, I visited the Mauritshuis - definitely the high point of the trip. It hosts a wonderful collection, not only the uberfamous Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Anatomy Lesson. So many masterpieces in such a small museum, it's really mindblowing. I finally was able to see the View of Delft by Vermeer, one of the first paintings I knew by him, and that became so associated with Proust - but still couldn't find the small yellow pane so loved by Swann.
Happily filled with great art, I walked around the city and finished the day with a drink at one of the Plein café terraces, enjoying the sunset of a beautiful sunny day.
The next day I headed to Leiden, to catch the bus to see the tulips at the Keukenhof Gardens. The sky was grey, so I decided to visit Leiden first, since the weather forecast said it would be sunnier later.
Leiden is another beautiful city, and I would have liked to have the time to visit more of its museums - I just visited the Pieterskerk and the Antiquities Museum. The church is grandiose and has several most interesting tombs; the museum has an outstanding Egyptian collection and many beautiful Greek vases and Minoan artifacts.
I had a Dutch lunch of meat croquettes, a little heavy for my taste, before I took the bus to Keukenhof. The garden is really beautiful, there were lots of tourists but the place was big enough to allow one to enjoy it. There were tulips galore, of all colours and shapes, and many beautiful daffodils as well. The pavilions were a little tacky, with its decorations themed on "peace and love" 1960s style, but still with many remarkably beautiful orchids and lilies. Unfortunately, the bulb fields were already stripped of flowers, it was one of the sights I longed to see - too bad, another minor setback.
I spent the last morning at The Hague visiting a few great bookstores, and buying Dutch books - seven, and there were so many more I felt like having, but I had to restrain myself. I highly recommend Paagman, the American Book Centre and Stanza to any book lover.
And so ended my short Holland trip, I was glad I took it, and it made me wish to travel again, as soon as possible.
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