5 Best Sights in The Hague, Netherlands

First known as the Lange Voorhout Palace, this lovely building was originally the residence of Caroline of Nassau, daughter of Prince Willem IV; in 1765 Mozart performed for her here. In 2001 the palace was transformed into a museum devoted to Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher (1892–1972), whose prints and engravings of unforgettable imagery—roofs becoming floors, water flowing upward, fish transforming into birds—became world famous in the 1960s and '70s. Replete with ever-repeating Baroque pillars, Palladian portals, and parallel horizons, Maurits Cornelis Escher's visual trickery presages the "virtual reality" worlds of today. Fittingly, the museum features an Escher Experience where you don a helmet and take a 360-degree digital trip through his unique world. Concave and convex, radical metamorphoses, and dazzling optical illusions are on view in the impressive selection of his prints (including the famed Day and Night and Ascending and Descending); distorted rooms and video cameras make children big and adults small; and there are rooms that are Escher prints blown up to the nth degree. Don't forget to look up as you walk around—dangling glitteringly from the ceiling is a series of custom-designed chandeliers by Dutch sculptor Hans van Bentem that are inspired by Escher's work. These delightfully playful creations include umbrellas, sea horses, birds, and even a giant skull and crossbones. The €26.50 family ticket makes a visit with the kids even more attractive.

One of the finest examples of 20th-century museum architecture was designed by H. P. Berlage (the grand Old Master of modern Dutch architecture) and completed in 1935. Although the collection ranges from A to Z—Golden Age silver, Greek and Chinese pottery, historic musical instruments, and paintings by Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh—the museum is best known for the world's largest collection of works by Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), the greatest exponent of Dutch artistic movement De Stijl. The crowning masterpiece, and widely considered one of the landmarks of modern art, is Mondrian's Victory Boogie Woogie, an iconic work begun in 1942 but left unfinished at the artist's death. The painting's signature black-and-white grid interspersed with blocks of primary color arrived only in 1998, when the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage controversially paid 80 million guilders for the (then American-owned) work. Also be sure to see the dollhouse with real doll-size Delft Blue chinaware. Elsewhere, the museum's Costume Gallery contains no fewer than 55,000 items (not all are on display at one time), providing endless inspiration for dedicated students of fashion.

Statistically, the Dutch are the tallest people in Europe, and never must they be more aware of their size than when they visit this miniature version of their own land. Set in a sprawling "village" with pathways, tram tracks, and a railway station, every important building of the Netherlands is reproduced here on a scale of 1:25. Many aspects of Dutch life, ancient and modern, are also on view: medieval knights joust in the courtyard of Gouda's magnificent Town Hall; windmills turn; the famous cheese-weighing ritual is carried out in Alkmaar; and a harbor fire is extinguished.

Thirty interactive points enable visitors to operate the awe-inspiring Delta Works storm surge barrier (constructed after the disastrous flooding of 1953), closing it to hold the ocean at bay and save villages from drowning. Or you can make a plane take off at Schiphol Airport, or load and unload container ships in the Port of Rotterdam.

Madurodam has two restaurants, a picnic area, and a playground, and the entire exhibit is surrounded by gardens. It is located in the woods that separate The Hague from the port of Scheveningen to the north. To get here, take Tram No. 9 from either railway station in the city center. Note that the entry ticket price varies according to your time and day of entry—to get the best deals, avoid weekends, peak hours, and school holidays.

One of Europe's greatest museums, the Mauritshuis offers an incomparable feast of art, including no fewer than 14 Rembrandts, 10 Jan Steens, and 3 Vermeers. The latter's remarkable View of Delft takes pride of place; its rediscovery in the late 19th century assured the artist's eternal fame. In the same room is Vermeer's (1632--75) most haunting work, Girl with a Pearl Earring, which inspired Tracy Chevalier's 1999 best-selling novel as well as its 2003 film adaptation. For something completely different, look to Jan Steen (1626--79), who portrayed the daily life of ordinary people in 17th-century Netherlands. His painting The Way You Hear It Is the Way You Sing It is particularly telling. Don't miss local boy Paulus Potter's vast canvas The Bull, complete with steaming cow dung; the 7-foot-by-11-foot painting leaves nothing to be said on the subject of beef on the hoof.

As an added treat, the original building itself is worthy of a 17th-century master's brush: a cream-color mansion tucked into a corner behind the Parliament complex and overlooking the Hofvijver River. It was built around 1640 for one Johan Maurits, Count of Nassau-Siegen and governor-general of Dutch Brazil. The pair behind its creation, Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post, were the two most important Dutch architects of their era. This truly is one of the finest museums in Europe.

Long before TV was capable of reproducing reality, painted panoramas gave viewers the chance to immerse themselves in another world. The Panorama Mesdag, painted in 1880 by the renowned marine artist Hendrik Willem Mesdag and a team including his wife, Sientje Mesdag-van Houtenback, is one of the largest and finest surviving examples of the genre. The cinematic vision is a sweeping view of the sea, the dunes, and the picturesque fishing village of Scheveningen. To enhance the effect of the painting, you are first led through a narrow, dark passage, then up a spiral staircase, and out onto a "sand dune" viewing platform. To the southeast is The Hague, detailed so perfectly that old-time residents can identify particular houses. So lifelike is the 45-foot-high panorama with a 400-foot circumference that it's hard to resist the temptation to step across the guardrail onto the dune and stride down to the water's edge.