The Day in Den Haag, Hague, Netherlands

The Hague has always been a little bit elusive to me. It's really close to everywhere I've been in Holland, but it just seems like I can't ever figure out what I should do there, so I haven't felt comfortable just "going for it."

But this year, one of the coaches at the volleyball camp recommended going to the Mauritshuis. He was like, "Do you like museums?" And I was like, "It depends..."

Then he told me that the Mauritshuis had the Vermeer painting of "Girl with a Pearl Earring." Okay, Den Haag, I see you, I see you.

This route took me on a new bus in an area of Wassenaar that I didn't even know existed, and dropped me off at the edge of the center. I felt confident striding down the boulevards in my museum outfit (you know, to look more artistic, you should always wear black, and a dress is nice touch, too), and got in the line already forming outside the Mauritshuis.

Dutch art is interesting, and definitely different than anything I've seen in France. They used a lot of bright colors, but only on the subjects of focus. All of the backgrounds were very dark browns, greens, blues, and blacks. Maybe this was a technique used to make the subjects "pop" more, but it gave me a sense of every subject having to come out of darkness and into the light. Not something I would put on a wall, but I'm also a sunny person, so that's okay. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).