Cyberus wrote:
edit: BTW, I'm about to apply for a job in the Hague. Someone told me Den Haag is a boring place. Is this true?
Well, what to say. I was born there, and lived there for about 17 years. Den Haag is indeed not very exciting because of its history. Lots of government officials and well-to-do people live(d) there, so the city is much more stately than the other three big cities of the Netherlands. Amsterdam has its canals and ancient wharehouses; Rotterdam its skyline and pre-WW2 run-of-the-mill brick and mortar districts. Den Haag bears a vague resemblance to London in certain districts (but much, much smaller, of course), which is probably why I feel quite at home there too.
The city does not really have a place to go out to, as is the case in Rotterdam (Oude Haven) or Amsterdam (Rembrandtplein, Leidseplein). Well, I'm lying a little bit, the boulevard at the coast in Scheveningen is quite nice to visit, but that is not really Den Haag anymore. (Even so, Scheveningen was the place To Be And To Be Seen many decades ago. There's even a word for it in the local dialect: 'flaneren'.) The city is host to various international events (North Sea Jazz, City-Pier-City marathon) and of course boasts the regular selection of movie theatres, shopping areas and fine restaurants. Just don't expect them to be big and massive.
To be honest, if you're used to Really Big Cities, most of the cities in this country will strike you as boring. Fortunately for Den Haag, it is very close to other big cities, and public transport is cheap-ish as well as fairly trustworthy. Rotterdam takes 20 minutes, Amsterdam 45. With those numbers, I think it doesn't really matter if Den Haag itself is a little boring.
