The Creative Life is a new addition to TheHagueOnLine, provided by writer and photographer Agnieszka Zakrzewska, who promises to share her creative ideas with us every second Wednesday of the month.

I fell in love with the Hague the first moment I saw it. Never mind that the first time I got to see the city I was dead tired after a long business day which followed a middle-of-the-night and rather bumpy flight to Schiphol. Never mind that it was already dark, the temperature was below zero and the famous bone-chilling Dutch winter wind was definitely living up to its reputation.

I saw the warm and cozy interiors clearly visible through the uncovered windows of the Dutch houses, the beautifully lit

shopping streets and the art displays on the Kijkduin beach, and it was love at first sight - the kind which is meant to last.

Two years later I’m still living in the Hague and my feelings have not changed. Originally I come from Poland, but I had lived in a few other European countries before moving to the Netherlands. Living abroad is always challenging (to put it mildly…) and has it own ups and downs, so it helps a lot to survive the latter if you feel at home in the city and the country you’ve moved to.

This is what I am hoping to help you with in this new series of features on TheHagueOnline.com, regardless of whether you’ve barely arrived or been living here longer than me, by inspiring you to go and explore.

For me a good weekend is a weekend when I can take my camera and my husband along (ignoring any objections that may come my way) and drag them both on an “exploration trip”, always to a new destination.

When foreigners think of Holland, they think of Amsterdam, the Dutch cheese, hash brownies and tulips. Sure, it’s all here, but there are so many more interesting things to see and experience here in this small and definitely flat country.

This is also what you will find in my series of features – ideas for places to visit and things to do in the Hague area and beyond, accompanied by my photos.

Although there’re so many places I’d like to write about it was no brain-teaser to decide that my first feature should be an introduction to the Hague itself.

I feel this city is often neglected in the tourist guides and many places of interest are not even listed in them.

Every list of the city’s main attractions will include the Binnenhof, the Hofvijver and the Peace Palace, and certainly they make for a nice tourist walk – been there, took the photos.

Everyone would have heard about the “tourist beach” of Scheveningen, while the much more picturesque and relaxed Kijkduin beach is underappreciated. And this is the place where the locals go and where during the summer months you can lounge on a deck chair on the beach and enjoy your favourite drink, making you feel as if you were on holidays even if it’s actually the middle of your working week.
 

Look at the photos which accompany this article – they were all taken in the Hague

and the surrounding area.

There’s no place like Loosduinen to observe the cute ducklings and what I call the mutant XXL-size ducks and geese (if you don’t know what I mean, you’ll know the moment you see them). The Forest of the Hague is where you can feed deer and rabbits, and in Voorschooten there’s a beautiful park with a castle and recreation grounds (so far I have yet to find a tourist guide which mentions it).

In the centre of the Hague there’s an amazing Japanese Garden, open several weeks per year only.

And I haven’t even mentioned the Westland area yet, just outside the Hague, full of it own attractions.

So let’s treat this as a sneak preview and an introduction to what’s to come in my next features on TheHagueOnline.com, and I invite you to come back here for a new dose of photo inspiration every second Wednesday starting today!

Text and photography by Agnieszka Zakrzewska

If you want to read more of my articles and see more of my photos, I invite you to visit my blog The Creative Life at http://thecreativelife.weebly.com/my-blog.html

If you wish to comment or express an opinion about this article please e-mail the editor@TheHagueOnLine.com