The Hague offers too much to be overlooked

As Eurostar opens new routes to the Netherlands, Lauren Taylor discovers art, history and fine food in The Hague

W hen most people think of a minibreak in The Netherlands, they imagine the romantic winding canals, late-night bars and red-light district of hedonistic Amsterdam.

But a 25-minute train ride from Rotterdam, now serviced by a new direct outbound Eurostar route from London, is the home of the Dutch parliament, royal family and the International Court of Justice. The Hague, often overlooked by British travellers for being more understated in its glamour, is in many ways the Netherlands’ most important city, and hosts some of the most significant Dutch art masterpieces.

Here’s how to explore the Hague and it’s smaller neighbour Delft.

1. Masterpieces at the Mauritshuis

Many come for one painting only – the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Delft artist Johannes Vermeer – which inspired a novel in 1999 and a film with Scarlett Johansson in 2003. It’s held at the Mauritshuis, home to some of the most famous paintings from the Golden Age of Dutch art in the 17th Century.

There are three Vermeers, several Jan Steens and more Rembrandts than Amsterdam, including The Anatomy Lesson (1632), one of his earliest masterpieces.

The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius also hangs next door to the Mauritshusis Vermeers.

The 17th-century building is a masterpiece in itself, hailed as one of the world’s greatest small museums, and sitting next to parliament buildings on the Hofvijver pond.

Tickets: E15,50 (under 19s are free) mauritshuis.nl

2. Marvel at the architecture

It’s pretty unusual to be able to stroll between parliament buildings and royal residences in a city centre, but in The Hague there’s a very real possibility of bumping into the prime minister outside the Gothic Binnenhof castle or (perhaps) catching a glimpse of royalty exiting Nooredeinde Palace.

“Amsterdam is beautiful, but it’s all the same,” says local guide Remco Dorr.

Meanwhile in The Hague you can get lost in the higgledy-piggledy streets, with medieval and art nouveau styles existing in harmony with the modern skyline, and where there are no straight lines, because the city was built on sand dunes.

Know where to look, and through several alleyways lie beautiful courtyards of hidden houses, originally almshouses built for maids who worked for aristocracy when they retired. Today, the 115 homes in The Hague are still strictly women-only communities.

3. Stroll around the canals of Delft

If it’s quintessentially Dutch canals you want then Delft, a short tram ride from the Hague, is made up of 11 “islands”, 88 bridges and a canal system more than 750 years old. A huge fire destroyed twothirds of this small city in 1654. Most of the wooden houses burned down but some of the stone buildings still remain. The oldest house, dating to 1548, sits opposite the fish restaurant Visbanken, which has been serving since 1342.

Delft’s most famous resident was Vermeer, born here and buried at the Oude Kerk (old church), although his house (and Rembrandt’s) were knocked down in the 19th Century because neither of the painters were well known.

The Oude En Nieuw (new church) on Delft’s main square, a cattle market until the 1970s, is where every member of the Dutch royal family is buried.