Holland & Belgium Viking River Cruise
Day 14: Thursday, November 07, 2024 - The Hague, Netherlands
The day's statistics:
- Weather: low 60s
- Steps: 15,122 Linda; 15,551 Steve
- Miles traveled (approximately): 7
We enjoyed the buffet breakfast in the hotel.
There were no scheduled excursions today, so we were on our own.
But we knew what we wanted to do. I mapped out our stops, and we headed out to the Peace Palace - which
also houses the International Court of Justice.
Just before heading out - it was overcast again - Linda got this shot of the royal shopping street.
At about 10:00 - we hung out in the room for a little before heading out - we departed and turned right
out of the hotel instead of left like we did last night.
Our walk took us down a street with a number of embasseys in the area.
At the end of this street, we had to turn left. However, there was a large construction area at the end,
and we were required to walk down a narrow walkway - along with others and even some bike riders.
After turning left, we bared right and walked around a building - completely because there was construction
on the other side of it too - and found that we could have bared left and saved the trek al the way around.
But while we were walking around this building we ran into Cindy and Lorraine, who also happened to be heading
to the Peace Palace. We told them not to go this way, and I pointed to the route it looked like we needed to take.
It only took a couple minutes out of our morning, but we arrived at the Peace Palace at about 10:30.
There were a couple interestingly designed benches just outside the gates, as well as the World Peace Flame.
We took a selfie here too, before turning our attention to the palace and grounds.
We can only imagine how well appointed the interior is.
As we were standing in front discussing the Palace amongst ourselves, a security guard from the gate guard house approached
us. After some chatting with him - and he learned we were from the US - we found out that the palace didn't open until 11:00.
And the palace itself didn't open, just a small museum and gift shop.
During our conversation with this native Netherlander, he asked "How could you have elected such a candidate?" We
all said that we had nothing to do with it, explaining that we cast our votes otherwise before we left for our
vacation. He then expressed some concerns for the EU and, more specifically, for Ukraine.
After our chat, we all decided that we would head to our next destination rather than stick around until the
museum opened. I had a local map from the hotel - and GPS on the phone - for our trek. Admittedly, NOT zooming in
on a map is a bit of a mistake as we had to walk a little further than we thought.
Our journey took us back through the construction zone - though this time we didn't walk all the way around that
building - and past the hotel. We crossed the canal and turned left, followed the canal to the bend, turned right,
and headed to our next destination.
(The first picture of the statue through the trees is a view from across the street where the embasseys were located, and
during review, I determined that the statue - unbeknownst to us at the time - in the second picture was the same one.)
We should have gone inside the hotel in the last image because what we saw on their website - wow, stunning.
After a nice leisurely 45 minute stroll, we arrived at our destination - the Escher Museum.
We read online that there were combo tickets available - buy two tickets at a reduced price and get into two museums.
We had to buy the tickets online, though. And it required an app. So I connected to the museum's wifi and downloaded
said app. Then I had to go through the process of buying the tickets - filling out the screens, including the payment.
Then the tickets were emailed. And I had to open that up. And download the tickets to be scanned.
It seemed like this took an hour, but it was probably ten minutes at best.
Eventaully our ticket QR codes were scanned and we made our way inside, after seeing this piece in the lobby.
Admittedly, I was not very familiar with the artist's name, but I certainly recognized some of his work.
A lot of Escher's work are optical illusions / impossibilities, or gradual transitions from one figure to another (like
Sky and Sea I that has a duck at the top, a fish at the bottom, and a transition between them between them).
The museum was in an old house, so it was laid out in the various rooms, each with a unique chandellier - I tried to
put the chandellier as the first image for each room, but a couple aren't. There were also a couple sculptures outside
one of the windows.
The top floor of the museum had an interactive area.
First, there was a mocked-up room that played with perspective and when a photo was taken inside of it (with their camera)
it made the person on the left appear considerably larger than the one on the right, even if they weren't.
Second, there were lines painted on the wall and when you entered the next room, a monitor on the wall displayed the
person(s) entering the room in a wire cube.
There were a couple other interactive things about, including another that allowed me to simulate the reflective ball drawing
Hand With a Reflective Sphere we saw earlier, pictured above.
There was a large, four story chandellier that hung down (the first image is from the 4th floor, the second from the bottom
floor but they are both together for continuity).
After we were done, we took the "back staircase" all the way down to the lowest floor.
Between the stairwell and the giftshop was a hallway with a 3D design on the walls, where we took a selfie.
After an hour and a half, and a short visit to the gift shop, it was time to head out.
We made our way to the park we walked through with Mark the previous day, and sat on a bench for a few minutes
before making our way to our next stop - passing the British embassey nearby. We were going to go to the Masdeg
Museum - which was essentially next door to our hotel.
We made our way to the Royal Shopping street, and headed due northeast. We perused some restaurant menus along
the way because we knew we were going to need some sustenance before the night was through.
We arrived at the Mesdag, loaded our belongings into a locker, and showed our QR code to go inside.
It wasn't that big of a museum, but we learned a bit about him and his wife.
The first room we entered was more of a hallway with some art on both walls and a bench in the middle.
The next room had a few pieces (included above), but, more importantly, information about the piece de resistance -
the Mesdag panorama.
The panorama at this museum "is the oldest panorama painting, still situation in its original location."
We climbed a short spiral staircase and emerged on a platform constructed to resemble a bungalow on a beach - specifically,
the Scheveningen beach.
The entire room was probably a bit more than twenty meters (more than sixty feet) wide. So the panorama doesn't appear as
immense as it is, or yes, it is as big as it looks.
I took a walk-aroound video, and then some pictures of the detailed areas. The panorama is on the wall "in the background",
while around the bungalow is real sand and artifacts to enhance the experience. Seaside sounds are also piped in to make the
viewr feel like they are really at the beach. (Some of the noise in the first segment is equiment at the facility as they
were doing some work.)
The top half of the panorama is clouds, so those were generally cropped out when possible as the detail was in the bottom half.
It was a rather amazing creation, and the curators did a great job displaying the piece.
After we left the panorama room going back down a short spiral staircase, and on the way out, there were a
trio of rooms to the right that had some more artwork in them.
The rooms weren't huge, but some fo the works were interesting.
After those we headed toward the front of the museum where the giftshop was - there was one last room on the
left heading toward the shop. There was even a small café.
The shop had the typical items for sale for an art museum giftshop, including puzzles, postcards, and towels
of the works, especially the panorama - including on the inside of an umbrella.
It was a nice museum, but [probably] the smallest of the three that we visited these last two days - though the
panorama certainly made it worthwhile.
We decided not to return to the Peace Palace from here either. But we did decide that it was time for some food.
The GPS machine showed that there was a market across the canal and street from the hotel. We stopped by, but it
was more of a limited supply convenience store than a full market to get a light dinner.
For fear of running into that situation too many times, we returned to the hotel front desk to ask about a market.
The clerk - the one that said our room was her mother's favorite - told us that there was a Albert Heijn market that
was "a five minute walk down the road this way." as she drew a spot on the map. That was certainly closer than than
market all the way down by the platz near the residence quarters.
So we headed out.
Let me just say that someone's interpretation of a five minute walk was way too off course to be even remotely
accurate. We walked for more than twice that. Even if it was earlier in the day, and maybe our steps were a little
livelier, we still wouldn't have made it in ten.
We came across a rather complicated intersection, with a sculpture, near the market. There were four different
direcctions as well as a tram passing through.
We eventually arrived, purchased our dinner, and headed back to the hotel.
Admittedly, the grocery bag started getting rather heavy on the way back. But we eventually arrived back - and
it was dark by that time too.
We returned to our room and set up our dinner - two salads to share, bread, wine, and chocolate.
After our meal, and as we arranged our luggage, I saw out the window the Royal Shopping street.
We finished our luggage thing, then we to bed.