The Hague

The Hague is the constitutional oddity of the Netherlands: parliament, the government, the Supreme Court, the Council of State, the monarch's working palaces and every embassy are here, and yet Amsterdam is the capital, an arrangement written into the constitution and explained by history rather than logic - the town grew up around the counts' hunting residence and never got city rights, so it was never a city in the medieval sense at all. It became the international law centre in the twentieth century, and the Peace Palace, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court sit here. The centre has the Binnenhof, the Mauritshuis with the Vermeer, the Passage arcade, the Lange Voorhout, and behind the dunes Scheveningen, a full seaside resort with a pier, ten minutes from the ministries by tram.

What you actually see

• Government without capital status - parliament and ministries in a town that was never a city.
• International courts - the Peace Palace, the ICJ and the ICC in one place.
• The Mauritshuis - Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Dutch Golden Age painting.
• Scheveningen behind the dunes - a seaside resort ten minutes from the ministries.

When to go

April to October. Two days.

Honest expectations

Museums close on Mondays and the Mauritshuis books out. The Binnenhof is under long renovation with restricted access. State occasions close streets. Scheveningen is very busy on hot days.

Nearby

Delft is south-east; Leiden is north-east.