Author Archives: Niki

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About Niki

I run the blog http://www.lifeinthehague.com

Orange craziness (Or: King’s Day merchandise at HEMA)

Posted on April 2, 2025 by Niki

This year, King’s Day will be on Saturday, April 26. The holiday marks King Willem-Alexander’s birthday (April 27). Since it falls on a Sunday this year, it will be celebrated on Saturday instead.

You can already get appropriately orange apparel at HEMA:

This kid’s t-shirt is available for purchase online. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, HEMA has a few characters that are associated with their brand.

  • Jip and Janneke, a boy and girl from the book series of the same name (see also English Wikipedia). They have been associated with HEMA since 1993.
  • Takkie and Siepie, the dog and cat of Jip and Janneke respectively. Takkie is Jip’s daschhond and Siepie is Janneke’s cat.

They also have some of the more normal merchandise available for purchase:

The Hague will also be host to “The Life I Live” festival on Friday, April 25. The full schedule of artists will be posted on their website on April 15.

Categories: Holidays, Shopping | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Behind the scenes look (Or: Documentary about Amsterdam Centraal airing on Disney+ NL)

Posted on March 24, 2025 by Niki

Disney+ has announced that a new documentary will air here in the Netherlands about Amsterdam Centraal, one of the largest train stations in the country. Around 200,000 people travel through the station on a daily basis. The documentary is called Amsterdam Centraal 24/7 and the first of six episodes will air on April 17. Read more at iamexpat.nl.

Photo by Martijn Stoof on Pexels.com

I think my favorite episode will be the one about Zandvoort (the F1 track) and all of the preparations that went into making sure 98% of the spectators arrive by public transportation or biking. Last year I had the web cam on for a while, watching the trains arrive every few minutes.

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Anyone up for some sweet pretzels? (Or: Speculoos flavor)

Posted on March 17, 2025 by Niki

Here is another off-the-wall item spotted at Xenos:

That’s right, speculoos flavored hard pretzel pieces. This is one of their “sweet” varieties. Wikipedia describes speculoos as a spiced cookie, noting that the speculoos version from Belgium has less spices than the speculaas version from the Netherlands.

I didn’t grab a bag on the day I snapped the photo, but a few days later Marco came home with a bag without him knowing I had taken a photo for the blog. We still need open the bag and try it… we’ll see how it tastes!

(Anything is probably better than the British Twiglets pretzel snack. Those taste like ashy death. I wish I was joking… I usually love pretzels!)

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Spring arrives in the Netherlands (Or: The flowers are waking up)

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Niki

Last weekend we had gorgeous weather in the Netherlands. The temperatures were around 17C/62F, give or take, with lots of sun to go around. Dutchies were out en masse at every available restaurant terrace with sun.

The flowers also responded immediately. Here is a look at the flowers in Huijgenspark, a park not far from the Holland Spoor train station:

Here’s a look at the basketball court in the morning sun. The tree trunks always catch my eye.

And here is a close up of the flowers:

As you can see, some have blossomed already, with more to come. Last weekend was so nice!

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Flowers for International Women’s Day (Or: When you don’t have a vase)

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Niki

Yesterday was International Women’s Day. While I was at the hairdresser one of the workers passed out roses to all the women working there and getting their hair done. I’m not really a flower person – neither Marco or I have a green thumb between us – but I wasn’t about to say no to a rose. Except for the miniature thorns on the side. Ouch.

After my hair appointment I went to Kelly’s expat store to pick up some very important supplies, including cinnamon raisin bagels and Rold Gold pretzels. (The pretzels are a newer offering at Kelly’s but one I appreciate. They are usually my go-to snack when visiting the US.) After making my purchase, the cashier asked if I wanted a flower. I was amused, but said yes, since it would make for a funny story on the way home. I chose a pretty pink flower to go with the rose I already had.

When I got home I told Marco about the two flowers I received, why and where. I mentioned that I had to take out my contacts but after that I would try to find something to put them in, since we don’t have vases lying around (anymore).

When I came back I noticed Marco had found the perfect vase for me:

Asahi is easily one of my favorite beers, so it was a logical choice for us.

Bonus picture – here’s what we had with the beer last Friday:

To celebrate the weekend, Marco made marinated salmon with pandan rice and sugar snaps on the side. There’s also some pickled ginger hiding in the back. It was delicious, and the beer paired well with it.

Categories: Culture, Everyday purchases, Marco&Niki | Tags: | Leave a comment

Japanese curry at Wagamama (Followed by: A Japanese metal band)

Posted on March 3, 2025 by Niki

On Saturday Marco, Roger and I went to the Mall of the Netherlands. We went later in the afternoon which meant the crowds were out in full force. (I know, we were part of the crowds too!) In the end we visited a lot of shops but didn’t buy anything.

Why were we at the mall, you ask? The movie theatre chain Kinepolis had a showing of Babymetal: Legend 43 – the movie, which Roger wanted to see. Babymetal is a Japanese metal band. The movie is an edited version of a concert Babymetal held in Okinawa at the end of their tour last year. The showing was pretty fun, although I am definitely not the right audience for a metal band. There were some interesting editing choices, including adding fake film distortion. But it was fun, as I said.

Before the movie, we stopped at Wagamama to get some dinner. As did everyone else in the mall. It was quite busy at the restaurants (of course). Wagamama didn’t have enough staff to handle the demand, although the staff that were there were definitely working hard.

This time I tried the Japanese curry. It was really nice, and exactly what I wanted. However, the version Marco made for me last month had an even richer, deeper umami flavor that this version didn’t quite capture. So he’ll be happy to know he needs to make that for me again…

As you can see above, the chicken is cut in half and the bed of rice is laid between it. The salad was also really nice; it paired really well with the heavier flavors.

Finally, here is the yuzu dessert Marco chose which I had a few bites of.

All in all a fun day!

Categories: Food, Shopping | Tags: | Leave a comment

Another weird item at Albert Heijn (Or: Marshmallow… what?)

Posted on February 23, 2025 by Niki

I spotted a weird item in the Easter section at Albert Heijn last week. Check it out:

That’s right… marshmallow croissants. They are also filled with chocolate “flavor” (vulling met chocoladesmaak). On the positive side, they do look realistic-ish. But they must be really weird to bite into. I’m not a huge fan of marshmallows so I will skip on this one.

Another weird item at Albert Heijn, but this time I actually purchased it: Lay’s chorizo and onion potato chips, one of those limited flavors that may or may not stick around. It wasn’t too bad, if you like chorizo. I’m not sure I would buy it again but the flavor was exactly as described.

The flavor is part of a poll to choose the best limited flavor. The other two flavors in the poll are 1) garlic and herb 2) mac and cheese. I’m willing to try the garlic and herb but I can’t bring myself to buy a bag of mac and cheese potato chips.

Great. Now I am thinking about marshmallow croissant flavored potato chips…

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Pink (Or: A different tree in De Passage)

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Niki

De Passage (a covered shopping area) has a tree in the center, where the Christmas tree usually stands. A few weeks ago a tree with pink leaves appeared.

It is fake, of course, but still pretty. Since it is in the center, you can see it from far away no matter how you enter De Passage.

In other news… today it was -3C (about 27F). That is actually pretty cold for the Netherlands these days. 

Ice rinks open in multiple places in Netherlands after freezing night from nltimes.nl. It is an artificial ice rink, created by spraying many layers of water and letting them freeze overnight.

Dutch skaters out in force to enjoy the ice – before it melts from dutchnews.nl

We will have another day or two of cold before the weather freakishly jumps up to a high of 15C (60F) on Friday. I am sure all of the terraces will be overflowing with sun-starved Dutchies then.

Now that’s a mental image for you!

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Peelable gummies (Or: Another interesting find by Xenos)

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Niki

I’ve blogged about the store Xenos before – the term is Greek for “strange” or “different”. And they do indeed have a lot of different things, which makes it fun to pop into the store every month or so to see what new things have arrived. (Another they do sell certain things for years and years. I broke a coffee cup last year. That wasn’t a problem, since Xenos was still selling the exact same model 5+ years later.)

The latest thing I noticed as peelable gummies.

The actual candy is a square, but you can apparently carefully peel away the outer edges to reveal the animal inside, either a penguin, turtle or dolphin. The mystery is what flavor each is. The bag just says “mixed fruit soda flavor”, so apparently each one is a different flavor like strawberry or lime.

In other news:

Eurostar resumes direct trains from Amsterdam to London from dutchnews.nl. The Eurostar train is much more enjoyable than taking a plane (for me). It only takes about 3 1/2 hours from Rotterdam to London’s city centre.

Cold week ahead for Netherlands; Snow in the north on Tuesday from nltimes.nl. The Hague won’t see any snow tomorrow, but it is definitely on the colder side, with temperatures just above freezing. Cold plus rain is never fun.

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The Hague skyline at sunrise (Or: Blues and oranges)

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Niki

Check out the photo I took this morning of a lovely sunrise behind the skyline of The Hague.

It was a nice start to the morning!

Categories: The Hague | Leave a comment

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