The Netherlands is quickly becoming one of my favorite countries (sorry, France!). It’s a tiny country and a collection of provinces (Holland comprises two of the twelve provinces, Noord-Holland around Amsterdam and Zuid-Holland around Den Haag), with many picturesque and culturally rich cities.
This weekend, we set out for The Hague and Rotterdam. Both are small cities (The Hague has 475,000 residents and Rotterdam has 600,000), so why not get a feeling for both in, say, one day each?
We didn’t quite know what to expect of Rotterdam (hm, maybe like Amsterdam but smaller?), but we really had no notions for The Hague. The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, which immediately curtailed any high expectations. We knew it had a seemingly disproportionate number of well-regarded museums, but we’ve trudged through enough well-reviewed-yet-poorly-curated institutions to know not to get our hopes up. We knew it looked pretty in photos, but so do many places.
Well, the joke was on us! Serves us right for thinking we could squeeze two cities into one weekend. We enjoyed The Hague so much that we forgot all about our Rotterdam plans. The museums were interesting (we didn’t even make it to a bunch that we wanted to see), we found a number of good restaurants, there was a relaxed feel to the city and there were countless art galleries and design shops. Plus, everyone was very friendly and everyone except the guy in the convenience store spoke English (when we smiled apologetically all weekend for not speaking Dutch, we were not met with scowls = nice people).
We stayed at the Hilton, which is new and well-situated near the city center (10 minute walk). In every direction, there are slews of restaurants, shops (lots of galleries, home goods shops, bookstores) and sights. I used to resist staying at chain hotels, thinking they were less authentic experiences, but having weathered enough single beds with thin blankets in miniscule rooms with lingering smoke, I now embrace the American chains. Plus, it’s worth it to sign up for the rewards programs as we always get free breakfasts and upgrades to the executive floors.
The Hague was small enough that we didn’t spend all weekend running around, but had enough to keep us busy. I highly recommend it and cannot wait to go back!
Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands, Dutch, Holland
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