Today was our first day in the new hotel, and I slept like a baby on the new beds. Today was a cultural day, with free time in the city of The Hague and eventually a visit to the Peace Palace. We started off by visiting Mauritshuis, where the Girl with the Pearl Earring is. I saw many beautiful paintings, my favorite being Appelles Painting Campaspe which features paintings inside the actual paintings, and has incredible detail when you look closer. I have included a picture below of both that painting and the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring.

The house itself was a house built originally for Maurits, a Dutch general and statesman. However the important history of the estate happens during the second World War, when many of the paintings had to be safeguarded from Germam bombings. The owner at the time Wilhelm Martin personally transported paintings included the Girl with the Pearl Earring to and from different bombproof art bunkers in order to safeguard them during the war. For a long time, the museum was filled with empty frames and housed families during the war.  It’s also rumored that Jewish families took refuge somewhere inside the house to avoid persecution. The Mauritshuis was reopened in 1940 after almost two years of closure.  

Our next stop was the Peace Palace, where the UN International Court of Justice is. The Court doesn’t actually create laws or make legislation, yet is run purely on public opinion. The Palace itself was made possible by a large donation of 1.5 million dollars which funded planning and some of the building. The design itself was decided upon by a competition in which a French architect won, but quickly received backlash for the edited design that was actually built. The documents and audio tour were informative, and the architecture was amazing. I’m glad we got to visit. 

Goedenavond!