The Hague

[ronald1987]

I've never shown any pictures of the Hague here.
So it's about time I make up for the lack of pictures of this great city. Today I went to The Hague, and the pictures bellow are the result of my two-hour walk through the central parts of Holland's densest major city.

In september, a new subway line (a lightrail line actually) between downtown Rotterdam and The Hague opened.
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/1196/67iz9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

The entire line isn't finished yet, you can travel until suburban The Hague (seen here), from there, there is a direct bus line to the Hague central station.
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The ministry of Mobility, Spatial Ordening, and Environment directly next to Central Station
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Inside the Ministry
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Outside the ministry, we're now amongst the Hague's tallest skyscrapers.
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/2479/6sh4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

These are commonly reffered to as 'the tits of the Hague'
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Het Strijkijzer
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Entrance of the building pictured above
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Typical Dutch channel, 21st Century-style.
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The ministry of spatial ordening, with a tramway passing through it.
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A similar set-up can be found in Canary Wharf, London.
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Courtyard in the ministry of public health and sport.
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http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/8186/14xd6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

It's been awhile since I last made a decent photoreport, that's why my pictures might not be as sharp and bright as I want to.
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Trams are everywhere.
http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/4054/19dr0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/4751/20gq5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Zoomed in a bit.
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Walking towards City Hall.
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This is typically the Hague, really.
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Entrance to City Hall
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Inside City Hall!
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From the 11th (the highest) floor:
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These shots were taken from a restriced area, but I got lucky because somebody in there had allowed me to come inside their office and take some pictures!

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In the thread 'Rotterdam II', you can see the Hague's skyline from the top of a Rotterdam Skyscraper.
Now you can see Rotterdam's skyline from the top of a the Hague skyscraper!

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Trams seen from 11 floors up.
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[ronald1987]

U/C skyscraper near The Hague H.S (another station)
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Trams passing through underneath the building
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The Hague H.S., another railway station, the 'H.S.' stand for 'Holland' s Railway'. I believe SimplyDan and Darkstar passed by this station on their way to Rotterdam.
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Not everything in the Hague is new and modern.
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A random street.
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Did you know you're on cctv?
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From a bike parking lot in front of the Central Station.
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More typical streets. Another couple of weeks and all the leaves will be gone. Luckily, we still made 19 degrees today.
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These next pictures were taken around the Prinses Beatrixlaan. New development, including above-ground tramways in wrapped in metal coccoons, are transforming this part of the city centre.
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There's also a tramstation inside the coccoon. It's still under construction. I sneaked into the building site (the construction workers were having a coffee), which is actually prohibited. Still, I couldn't help doing it, I had to see the station!!
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/1912/64td0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Last shot of an office building across the street.
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3387/66ec2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Darkstar416]

Great job as always Ron! It makes me want to head back to Holland and check it out. All we got to see of The Hague was 'the tits' fly by from the train. ;)

[simply Dan]

Excellent photos Ronald! Wow - next time we're in Holland, I definately want to check out The Hague! Looks fantastic - very inspiring architecture, design and infrastructure.

How cool would it have been to build the new People Mover train at Pearson airport in a metal cucoon like that??

[Observer Walt]

Great pictures again. These views show that the city is dense as you say, also that there seem to be many mixed-use areas, with buildings which appear to be residential in close proximity to large office districts. It looks like an interesting city.


Not everything in the Hague is new and modern
I'm glad you clarified that; I was beginning to think that the entire city was created by magic within the past 25 years!

In Canada we sometimes tend to think of European cities as "old"; your pictures demonstrate otherwise.