This was a question on Quora.

My answer:

If someone were to tell me the Netherlands is an ugly and boring country I would have to assume this person…

  • does not appreciate one of the most diverse, most tolerant, most open, most creative, most advanced, most technologically sophisticated and most progressive societies on this earth
  • does not like optimistic people
  • finds it boring when half the people he meets, let him know they are in therapy (how cool is that?!)
  • does not fall for insanely attractive tall ladies with an opinion and no fear of voicing it in a way that makes you suspect they read a thesaurus before breakfast
  • does not want to get junk food out of a wall (have you really lived then?)
  • does not like art museums
  • hates flowers
  • has not acquired a sense of humor beyond finding people falling down funny
  • finds it regrettable most Dutch media do not spread conspiracy theories or fake news
  • hates debating
  • finds cycling in a safe environment to be sleep inducing
  • finds it unimpressive when a country creates a whole new province out of land that was flooded by water
  • finds it equally unimpressive when a country builds one of the most elaborate systems to avoid flooding (see ‘de deltawerken’)
  • finds it insulting when the news for kids is better than most news for adults in the US (check out ‘het jeugdjournaal’ of NOS)

I can continue, but to list all the reasons why The Netherlands is not an ugly nor an uninteresting country would amount to about 17 million in the end.

The only reason I can think of for finding the Netherlands boring would be if one were to be obsessed with mountains and finds mountains to be the pinnacle of beauty and excitement.

The Netherlands are as lacking in mountains as they are rich in everything else.

To be fair, their mountainlessness is in their frigging name. So if that obdurate mountain lover went to the Netherlands he would just be setting himself up for disappointment and have no right to complain. The Dutch are nothing if not straightforward and direct.