I mentioned in a recent What’s New that I took on a pan-European management role at my job. One of the implications of that is I travel often to visit clients and offices in our eight European countries. And so it was that a rather short-notice necessity meant that I would need to spend the better part of last week in the Netherlands.

I’ve been to Amsterdam a bunch of times by now, enough times that the city doesn’t hold that alluring charm that its reputation grants. This year I spent some time exploring the rest of the Netherlands. In August, I went to Utrecht and loved it, and was glad to get to visit another city in the Randstad. I told a lie earlier: I did commit some climate crimes by flying, which I regret. I could have gotten there much faster by train. That was my mistake and oversight.

I booked a hotel in the picturesque Statenkwartier to the northwest of the city center. Art museums and rows of quiet triple-deckers arranged themselves in an orderly crescent on the western side of the Scheveningse Bosjes, a large, wooded park in the city. It’s not far from the beach, but the weather was uncooperatively rainy and windy, so I didn’t venture to the sea this time. Perhaps a future visit during nicer weather lies in wait for me. After all, people have been clamoring to send me to The Hague for a while, and after such a pleasant visit I can’t disagree.