Sep 06, 2026
|
The Hague and Scheveningen
Where Dutch government, golden-age masterpieces, and a grand seaside resort share one extraordinary address.
|
|
Love Netherlands
|
|
Dear Netherlands,
It’s easy to miss the thing that makes the Netherlands special. It isn’t the windmills or the tulips or the canals, though all of those are real and beautiful. It’s a particular kind of attention — the way a Dutch baker arranges the croissants, the way a Dutch cycle lane goes exactly where you need it, the way a brown café has the same four regulars in the same four seats for forty years. Pay attention to that, and you’ll start to love the Netherlands in a way most visitors never do.
|
|
Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe free and never miss an edition →
|
|
If the daily newsletter brings you closer to the Netherlands, our Sunday Premium Edition takes you deeper into it. Every Sunday you’ll receive travel deep dives, curated itineraries, regional stories, and hidden gems you won’t find anywhere else.
Upgrade for less than the price of a pint and see the Netherlands in a completely new way.
|
Michielverbeek via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
|
In today’s email:
- The Hague and Scheveningen: Royal Courts, Vermeer’s Gaze, and the North Sea Shore
- At The Café — Café Karpershoek — Amsterdam’s Oldest Café, Right by the Station
- Around The Web — The Love Netherlands Guide № 003: Delft Blue Pottery, Alkmaar Cheese Market 2026: The Complete Guide to the Netherlands’ Most Iconic Tradition, 5-Day Dutch Heritage Itinerary for First-Time Visitors + more
- From Love Netherlands — Discover Your Utrecht Roots: Heritage, Diaspora, and Family History
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Poffertjes — The Tiny Pancakes Sold From Copper Pans
|
The Hague and Scheveningen: Royal Courts, Vermeer’s Gaze, and the North Sea Shore
👉 Read the full story
The Hague and Scheveningen: Royal Courts, Vermeer’s Gaze, and the North Sea Shore Where Dutch government, golden-age masterpieces, and a grand seaside resort share one extraordinary address. An introduction to The Hague and Scheveningen The Hague has a habit of wrong-footing visitors who arrive expecting something grey and governmental. Yes, it is the seat of Dutch government and the home of the International Court of Justice — a city of diplomats, delegations, and decisions that shape the world. But within those formal credentials lives a place of remarkable warmth: wide boulevards canopied by linden trees, one of the finest small art galleries in Europe, an abundance of excellent restaurants and independent shops, and a genteel, unhurried rhythm that Amsterdam, for all its brilliance, rarely manages to sustain. Then there is Scheveningen. Absorbed administratively into The Hague in…
👉 Read the full story
Have you been there? Do you have a memory of this corner of the Netherlands? Hit reply and tell us — we’d love to hear your story.
|
|
“Want deep dives into the Netherlands every Sunday? Our Premium readers already have their next edition waiting.”
|
At The Café
Café Karpershoek — Amsterdam’s Oldest Café, Right by the Station
Café Karpershoek opened in 1606 — older than Café Hoppe, older than the Westerkerk, older than most things in Amsterdam that are still standing. It’s a small brown café two minutes from Centraal Station, easy to miss in the rush of arriving travellers. The floor is sand, scattered fresh every morning the way every Dutch tavern used to do it. The walls are nicotine-stained from before the smoking ban and lined with antique tin signs. It’s where you go for your first beer in Amsterdam if you want to start the way the city started.
👉 Visit the café
|
Around The Web
|
From Love Netherlands
Your family left Utrecht generations ago. They crossed oceans and built new lives in America, South Africa, Australia, or Indonesia. But something of them remains in the centre of the Netherlands — in church records, civil registers, and the archives of a province that shaped Dutch history for a thousand years. If you have Utrecht ancestry, this guide helps you find them. Why Utrecht Ancestry Matters Utrecht province sits at the geographical…
👉 Read the full story
|
Photo: Photo by Ezgi Deliklitas on Unsplash
|
Dutch Food You Will Love
Poffertjes — The Tiny Pancakes Sold From Copper Pans
Poffertjes are small, fluffy yeasted pancakes made on cast-iron pans with little round dimples, dusted with icing sugar and topped with a knob of butter. You eat them with a wooden fork from a paper plate, ten or twelve at a time, while standing at a stall on the street or sitting in a market square. They appear at every Dutch outdoor festival from spring to Christmas markets, and the smell of butter and sugar drifting across a town square is one of the most reliable cues that you’ve found a real local event rather than a tourist set-piece. A poffertjes pan can hold over forty at once — it takes about three minutes to fill a plate.
👉 Read the full story
|
|
Know Someone Who Loves the Netherlands?
If you’re enjoying this letter, the best thing you could do is forward it to one friend who’d love the Netherlands too. This newsletter grows by word of mouth alone — every single subscriber came from someone sending it to someone else. Thank you for being one of the first.
|
|
Our daily newsletter is free and always will be. But for less than the price of a pint, you can upgrade to our Sunday Premium Edition, which gives you access to our travel deep dives, curated itineraries, and regional stories. Consider buying us a stroopwafel — it’s the Dutch way to say thank you.
|
Also From Our Family
Love Ireland too? Over 64,000 readers wake up each morning to the Love Ireland newsletter — loveireland.substack.com
Or Scotland? Join 43,000 Scotland lovers — lovescotland.substack.com
|
|
You’re reading Love Netherlands — a free letter about canal towns, hidden villages, and Dutch stories, delivered Monday to Friday.
inlovewithnetherlands.com ·
Unsubscribe
© 2026 Love Netherlands · Part of the Love To Visit LLC family
|
|
