The Manneken Pis statue has been all dressed up for the holidays in Brussels. The photo is courtesy of Roger who was in Brussels earlier in December.
The statue’s name is a reference to the fact that he is well, urinating into the fountain. And if you think that is a modern crude joke, I’m hear to tell you that the statue most likely dates from the 15th century and it’s current version was added in either 1618 or 1619 (Wikipedia). It does get stolen a lot though, so the current version on display at the fountain has been a replica since the 1960s. The original is stored in the Brussels city museum.
But at least he won’t catch a cold – he is wearing some clothes for once!
In the Zeeheldenkwartier (literally “Sea Heroes Quarter”) neighborhood they have set up a really nice looking Christmas tree. The color and pattern of the lights alternates often – some days it is all blue, some days it is blue and white, and some days it is red and white.
The tree stands in the middle of a larger rotunda with trams and cars whizzing past on either side. At least, during busier times of the day then what is captured above…
There are also a few stone sea turtles near the base of the tree which you can just barely make out. Here is a previous post I did about the turtles.
Something interesting that I spotted in the Amazing Oriental on the Grote Marktstraat – a hot snack machine. The machine is sometimes called an automatiek (English Wikipedia).
For the moment the only option looks to be a bag of 10 mini spring rolls for €1.60. You can either pay with coins – exact change only – or with your debit card. Here’s hoping they start offering a bit more variety!
Today (December 3) is the Netherlands’ first day of snow. We won’t get a lot – somewhere between a good dusting to about an inch. It’ll probably disappear tomorrow as there is rain predicted tomorrow. Still, it does make for a white world, especially outside of the city. Although the snow didn’t start until after the sun went down so I don’t have any good photos this time around.
Here’s another photo of the Christmas decorations in De Passage lit up:
And here are a few articles I thought were interesting reads in the last week:
‘How do you reduce a national dish to a powder?’: the weird, secretive world of crisp flavours from theguardian.com. I thought it was a great read, although it doesn’t have that much to do with the Netherlands. But there is one reference: “Once the computers have done their job, the data makes its way to Wood. If she’s lucky, she can repurpose an existing flavour. In 2010, Lay’s launched Patatje Joppie in the Netherlands because of the nation’s love of Joppiesaus, a curried mayonnaise. Wood says the same flavour exists as Honey Mustard in other parts of the world. ‘We can play with the naming, because what you call something has a really big bearing on what people think it is.'” Admittedly, I have never tried that particularly flavor. It’s still going strong, though. Oh, and they say Germany loves the paprika (bell pepper) flavor. I am here to tell you that the Netherlands loves it just as much.
Another article I liked was over at Omroep West, although it’s in Dutch so Google Translate is your friend here. It talks about all of the weird, silly things that happened at voting locations in The Hague during the national elections a few weeks ago: Stempas van overleden vrouw en bijdehante fotograaf, gekke dingen tijdens verkiezingen in Den Haag, or, Voting ballot from deceased woman and wisecracking photographer, crazy occurrences during the elections in The Hague.
The Christmas tree in De Passage has arrived! As always, its home is at the center of De Passage (the old part of the shopping area, at least) since that part forms a sort of Y. You can thus see the tree from everywhere in De Passage.
And here is a close up of the decorations for this year:
Marco and I just got back from a trip to London for a week. We had a blast! While I visited London back in 2010, that was only for a day and a half so I didn’t remember much.
Here are some of the photos I took over the last week:
Above: a display at the British Museum. As you can tell, I am a fan of blue things.
Above: Westminster Abbey
Trafalgar square includes an area with four lions. You can read more about the square and lions at visitlondon.com. I took this photo because I was way too amused by the warning in the foreground…
Above: Big Ben. I am charmed by the statue in front.
Above: London Eye ferris wheel, from a distance. Apparently it takes 30 minutes for one full revolution.
All in all, it was a lovely trip. And I didn’t even show any of the awesome food we ate…
(If you came across this blog post after a Google search and you need help with this puzzle, skip to the end of this post.)
Marco gave me a puzzle for Christmas—it might have been Christmas 2021, even!—that has proven challenging to say the least. I worked on it for months, off and on. This puzzle was one of the main reasons I bought a pair of reading glasses. A lot of pieces look like each other. Even though you can see two shades of brown below, if you put the pieces next to each other it was hard to tell what shade it was. It reminded me of the dress color controversy (Wikipedia).
As you can see, it doesn’t even fit in my Portapuzzle (see also bol.com) because it is much wider than it is tall. The puzzle measures 35 by 13 inches (89 by 33 cm). The official store where you can buy it is at Noble Collection.
Here’s a close up:
Along with the odd dimensions, another problem is that the puzzle doesn’t come with an extra piece of paper showing the puzzle at a larger size to help you put it together. It does come in a very awesome box, though. And don’t get me wrong. This was a great gift and definitely worth the money Marco spent.
Here are the two links I used to help me solve this puzzle:
Noble Collection’s UK website – if you click on the first box at the bottom of the page, you’ll see a close up of the puzzle. Click on it again to zoom it.
This Reddit image from user jnfranne. Note: click on the picture to zoom in further. This image was extremely helpful as you could see the lines of the puzzle pieces. It was also amusing to see that the puzzle I got was about 1mm off from that user’s – in my puzzle everything was a bit further to right. The image came from this post over at the Reddit “jigsawpuzzles” community.
I was by Albert Heijn recently and I spotted a crompouce. What is a crompouce, you ask? It’s a cross between a croissant and a tompouce (Wikipedia). The latter is a Dutch/Belgium treat that is horribly difficult to eat. I subscribe to the method where you eat the cream in the middle with your fork, and when the structural integrity starts failing you start eating the top of it as well.
And now we have crompouces…
It’s basically a croissant with cream in the middle and the tompouce icing on top. I haven’t had one yet. I might need to have my dentist on speed dial if I try it, though.
I recently spotted some pepernoten beer by the local Hema:
A pepernoot is a cookie-like confectionery (see more at Wikipedia). But the red hat symbol on top of the beer makes it clear that this should be consumed in the days leading up to and during Sinterklaas, a Dutch holiday similar to Christmas on 5 December. (Okay, okay, obviously Sinterklaas came first. See more at Sinterklaas vs. Santa Claus from The Hague International Centre.)
The thought of Dutch parents enjoying a beer or three while children unwrap presents during Sinterklaas reminds me of the scene during A Christmas Story when the parents relax with a glass of wine after the kids have unwrapped their presents on Christmas Day.
Oh, and unrelated: I have decided that I am (still) not a fan of setting the clocks back. I’d rather have a dark morning than a dark evening. You can have your hour back!
While taking a walk earlier I decided to photograph one of the canals in The Hague’s city centre.
The best part of this photo? The lovely blue skies. But after I took this photo I turned right and all I saw was grey, depressing sky. It looked like it would rain any minute, although it thankfully did not.
Are you also looking forward to Halloween? Check out Festival of frights: 13 ways to celebrate Halloween in NL from dutchnews.nl. Slowly but surely, Halloween is becoming a “thing” here, every year just a bit more. You can also get some Halloween candy at Kelly’s expat store. I bought a few bags of candy corn for Marco and Roger already. It reminds me of the time that Marco and I were visiting my parents in the States and Mom bought a huge tub of candy corn. It disappeared so quickly you would think a ghost ate it all…
The Hague’s official website also publishes a list of events happening in The Hague for Halloween over at their website. You can even attend a Halloween party at the Grote Kerk (“Big Church”) on 28 October.
Life in the Hague 
