's-Hertogenbosch

Officially it’s ‘s-Hertogenbosch, “the Duke’s Forest”, a mouthful with a stray apostrophe that trips up even the Dutch, so nearly everyone calls it Den Bosch. Come carnival it becomes Oeteldonk, a town of frogs, and it even lent its name to the painter Jheronimus Bosch, whose fevered visions of paradise and hell sit rather oddly in a city this gezellig.

Below the great rivers, the Dutch say, life turns Burgundian, slower, more sociable and generous at the table, and Den Bosch takes the idea seriously. Its alleyways seem built for lingering on a terrace over coffee and a Bossche Bol, a cream-filled bun drenched in chocolate that locals treat as a civic duty.

VoiceMap’s self-guided audio tour lets a born-and-raised Bosschenaar show you the city as he knows it. Follow the Binnendieze, the old merchant canal that slips beneath houses, explore the Uilenburg district and hear why St John’s Cathedral never got its west tower. And when a terrace calls, just hit pause.

Put your earbuds in and take Den Bosch the Burgundian way, one story and one more coffee at a time.