Den Haag
A few weeks ago my mom had sent me an email about an installation of light art on the beach in Den Haag. It looked really beautiful and I wanted to check it out before it ended on 14 February. Neither my husband or I had ever been to Den Haag so we decided to go a bit early and check out the M.C. Escher museum they have there and wander around a bit before heading to the beach. It is about an hour train ride from Amsterdam Centraal Station. We arrived around 2:30 and hopped on the bus to the museum. We felt kind of silly taking the bus when we realized the museum was only two blocks away from the station!
The museum is in the old winter palace of the royal family. So not only does it feature the fascinating work of Escher but you get to wander around a historical building! I only had my iPhone to take pictures with so the quality is not that great. Dan took some shots as well and I will post them as soon as he uploads them.
This is the building the museum is in.
I thought the admission price was pretty reasonable at €7.50. They direct you downstairs to lock up your bags and hang your coats and then you can wander the museum. I had a lot of fun looking at his work. I used to use his art when I taught my students geometry. His tessellations are perfect for teaching slides, flips, reflections, etc. My students would also make their own tessellation art. I also loved his pieces that played around with perspective. This one was our favorite. I love how the top is from the girl's perspective and the bottom from the boy's. We almost bought a print of it from the gift shop but were worried about finding a frame to fit its unusual size.
Aside from the gorgeous rooms and art, there were these funky chandeliers made by an Hans van Bentem from Rotterdam.
On the top floor is an interactive part of the museum that allows you to play with some optical illusions and interact with Escher's work. This display was my favorite because it featured one of my favorite movies:
After we wandered around the museum, we went out to try to find the best way to get to the beach. Well, apparently the beach was an hour and 30 minute walk from the museum! We decided to walk back to the train station and ask at the information desk how to get there. On our walk back we passed a park and Dan noticed some animals down the path. We couldn't tell if they were real, until we saw them move and then we still couldn't figure out what they were so we decided to investigate. Turns out it was an island full of...
The area is called Haagse Bos, which I think translates to Little Hague Forest. It must be a kind of wildlife preserve because there were tons of dear and birds all around. It was such a pleasant surprise to stumble across on our walk.
It was also a really foggy day and I loved how the winter trees looked with the fog.
At the station we found out which bus we needed to take. We got some kaas souffle (fried cheese) and drinks to keep us going and hopped on the bus. I am glad we had to take the bus because it gave us a nice little tour of The Hague. We definitely want to go back. It is a beautiful city. Some of the architecture was very similar to Amsterdam but a lot of it also reminded me of Paris. It was more of a spread out city than Amsterdam and of course had less canals. Next time we go, we want to spend more time in the city center.
Our bus dropped us off right at the beach. The beach was blocked off because it looked like they were working on some pipelines, so we walked along the path near the beach. We saw the lights:
While waiting for it to get dark we checked out the shops and restaurants. It was FREEZING by the beach so we settled on a pancake restaurant and ordered hot chocolate right away. I don't know how they make it, but I have not had a bad cup of hot chocolate since we moved out here. It is so sweet, chocolatey, and creamy! I had a delicious pancake with raisins, apple compote, whip cream, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Dan had chicken sate and french fries. Can you tell who has the sweet tooth? The restaurant seemed like a Dutch version of Dennys or IHop. It wasn't a chain, but it had a lot of families that were letting their kids run all around. They also had a section for kids to watch cartoons. The food was cheap and good and by the time we finished it was dark and we could really see the lights.
Hopefully Dan's camera got some better quality pictures. They were really pretty and changed colors. It was a fun things to see and we had a really nice day exploring another city.
The museum is in the old winter palace of the royal family. So not only does it feature the fascinating work of Escher but you get to wander around a historical building! I only had my iPhone to take pictures with so the quality is not that great. Dan took some shots as well and I will post them as soon as he uploads them.
This is the building the museum is in.
I thought the admission price was pretty reasonable at €7.50. They direct you downstairs to lock up your bags and hang your coats and then you can wander the museum. I had a lot of fun looking at his work. I used to use his art when I taught my students geometry. His tessellations are perfect for teaching slides, flips, reflections, etc. My students would also make their own tessellation art. I also loved his pieces that played around with perspective. This one was our favorite. I love how the top is from the girl's perspective and the bottom from the boy's. We almost bought a print of it from the gift shop but were worried about finding a frame to fit its unusual size.
Aside from the gorgeous rooms and art, there were these funky chandeliers made by an Hans van Bentem from Rotterdam.
On the top floor is an interactive part of the museum that allows you to play with some optical illusions and interact with Escher's work. This display was my favorite because it featured one of my favorite movies:
After we wandered around the museum, we went out to try to find the best way to get to the beach. Well, apparently the beach was an hour and 30 minute walk from the museum! We decided to walk back to the train station and ask at the information desk how to get there. On our walk back we passed a park and Dan noticed some animals down the path. We couldn't tell if they were real, until we saw them move and then we still couldn't figure out what they were so we decided to investigate. Turns out it was an island full of...
The area is called Haagse Bos, which I think translates to Little Hague Forest. It must be a kind of wildlife preserve because there were tons of dear and birds all around. It was such a pleasant surprise to stumble across on our walk.
It was also a really foggy day and I loved how the winter trees looked with the fog.
At the station we found out which bus we needed to take. We got some kaas souffle (fried cheese) and drinks to keep us going and hopped on the bus. I am glad we had to take the bus because it gave us a nice little tour of The Hague. We definitely want to go back. It is a beautiful city. Some of the architecture was very similar to Amsterdam but a lot of it also reminded me of Paris. It was more of a spread out city than Amsterdam and of course had less canals. Next time we go, we want to spend more time in the city center.
Our bus dropped us off right at the beach. The beach was blocked off because it looked like they were working on some pipelines, so we walked along the path near the beach. We saw the lights:
While waiting for it to get dark we checked out the shops and restaurants. It was FREEZING by the beach so we settled on a pancake restaurant and ordered hot chocolate right away. I don't know how they make it, but I have not had a bad cup of hot chocolate since we moved out here. It is so sweet, chocolatey, and creamy! I had a delicious pancake with raisins, apple compote, whip cream, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Dan had chicken sate and french fries. Can you tell who has the sweet tooth? The restaurant seemed like a Dutch version of Dennys or IHop. It wasn't a chain, but it had a lot of families that were letting their kids run all around. They also had a section for kids to watch cartoons. The food was cheap and good and by the time we finished it was dark and we could really see the lights.
Hopefully Dan's camera got some better quality pictures. They were really pretty and changed colors. It was a fun things to see and we had a really nice day exploring another city.