The Hague - Den Haag - 's-Gravenhage

So while most of the previous blog entries have been about my travels, this one is just a short introduction to where I actually live: The Hague, in Dutch known as Den Haag, although the official name is 's-Gravenhage. Den Haag means "the hedge" and "'s-Gravenhage," an antiquated version of the name means "the count's hedge," harkening back to the "royal" origins of the city. What started as a village hundreds of years ago around an escape for the nobility has now become a city of around half a million people on the North Sea, in between Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It also serves as the functional capital of the Netherlands, home to the parliament and current royal family. Just for clarification purposes, in the past the Netherlands was widely known as Holland. In reality the name Holland refers to two provinces (North and South Holland) on the coast of the Netherlands, while the country itself contains another 10 provinces. Dutch is the official language.

This is a picture a friend took of the downtown/city-center area from his appartment. I'd say it's a decent skyline! The highest building right now is around 30 stories tall, although there are significant plans to build more towers right in the area of the tallest ones you see in this picture above.
This picture shows a bit more of the contrast of old and new in the city center. The building on the pond is actually the parliament building.

This is a picture of my house. I live in the floor above the ground floor. It's maybe a 15 minute walk to the downtown/city-center area from where I am.

This is the view from inside my house towards the house across the street.


This is a view of the rest of the street I live in.