The Hague

The Hague is a city in southwestern Netherlands, situated on the North Sea coast.  It is the seat of the Dutch government and the provincial capital of South Holland, and is the location of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.  The city was once called des Graven hage ("the Count's wood" or "the Count's hedge"), which has evolved to s'-Gravenhage.  It is also known as den Haag ("the Hedge").  We arrived via a short bus ride from Delft.  Our first stop was at the Vredespaleis ("peace palace"), where the ICJ convenes.

The World Peace Flame is housed in this small monument near the Vredespaleis.  The stones around its base have been brought from many countries.

A peace dove was the motif for this bench.

This area is the Binnenhof ("inner court"), around which the city was built.  The main building once housed the Dutch parliament.  According to our guide, the ice cream man was always on friendly terms with the Prime Minister, and sometimes knew who the Prime Minister was going to be, even before he was elected.

Here's a bit of the Hague's skyline.

Our visit to the Hague concluded with a tour of the Mauritshuis, a museum of Dutch painting.  This is the facade.  To enter, we had to go down a stairway to the left.

There's more on the Hague at Wiki, Lonely Planet and Netherlands Tourism.  We eventually left the Hague and went to Schoonhoven, where we were reunited with our ship.