Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Sweerts, Boy in a Turban. Image courtesy Mauritshuis
About this tour
From 15 October 2026 to 17 January 2027 the Mauritshuis hosts 25 masterpieces from the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, while 25 of its own, View of Delft among them, travel south in return. Two museums have never swapped highlights at the same time before, and it will not happen again. Every painting arriving in The Hague is about love in one of its forms, from Jan van Eyck's Annunciation Diptych to Bronzino's young man dressed as Saint Sebastian, and one canvas carries a Spanish passport, El Greco's Annunciation, painted in Toledo around 1600. For three months a piece of Catholic Spain hangs inside the building that best explains the Dutch Republic. The Storykeeper starts in Toledo with El Greco and ends in Delft with Vermeer, and spends the twenty minutes in between explaining why two countries at war for eighty years painted the same century in two opposite languages.
The day
Meet the Storykeeper in the hotel lobby and drive to The Hague, about 45 minutes from Amsterdam. Begin with a walk through the political heart of the country. Circle the Binnenhof and the Hofvijver, the medieval court where the oldest working parliament in Europe still sits, pass the Ridderzaal and cross to Noordeinde Palace, where the King goes to work. Continue along the Lange Voorhout, the lime tree avenue of embassies and the Escher in Het Paleis museum, through the Passage, the oldest shopping arcade in the Netherlands, to the Grote Kerk and the Plein. Coffee on the Plein before the museum.
El Greco, The Annunciation, c. 1596 to 1600, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Image courtesy Mauritshuis
Willem van Haecht, Apelles Painting Campaspe, c. 1630, Mauritshuis
Enter the Mauritshuis with a timed ticket and follow the Storykeeper through Masterpieces from Madrid, then into the permanent collection, where the curators have used the empty walls to bring lesser known paintings out of storage. See Girl with a Pearl Earring in her own room, linked by livestream to Michael Sweerts' Boy in a Turban in the exhibition hall, two young faces turning to the light a few years apart. Find Sebastiano del Piombo's portrait of Ferry Carondelet hung beside Willem van Haecht's Apelles Painting Campaspe, and look closely, the Del Piombo is already there, painted in miniature on the back wall of the imaginary gallery. The two canvases have never shared a room before. Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp and Jan Steen complete the visit. Lunch at a restaurant near the Plein (not included).
In the afternoon, drive to Panorama Mesdag, the largest painting in the Netherlands. In 1881 Hendrik Willem Mesdag painted the beach at Scheveningen on a canvas 14 metres high and 120 metres around, seen from a dune in the middle of the room, with real sand at its foot. It is the oldest panorama in the world still in its original building, and the closest thing to standing on the beach of 1881. Return to Amsterdam by late afternoon.
<aside> ✔️
Inclusions
Tour Disclaimers: Please be aware that even after your booking is confirmed, your itinerary may be subject to changes based on availability and to ensure we deliver the best possible experience to our clients.