Back when the first wave started in the spring, Marco, Roger and I ordered bento box take out from Restaurant SET here in The Hague. It was yummmmmy. We received two €10 coupons for use later in 2020:
It was an unexpected surprise! The coupons are valid for dine-in (everything except High Tea) through 31 December 2020.
Hmph. 31 December 2020? Opps. I guess we waited a bit too long there, since restaurants aren’t allowed to be open for dine-in at the moment. Regardless, the branches in The Hague and Rotterdam are completely closed anyway, with a potential date of reopening set for 19 January, if the lockdown ends on that date as scheduled.
Here is a look at the ice cream I ordered last year for my birthday:
Tell me you don’t think that is the cutest thing ever.
The Hague’s library system has limited options for alternative service during the lockdown which will last until (at least) 19 January.
Patrons who are aged 70 or older can request a one-off delivery of up to 6 chosen titles (including up to 1 DVD). The books will come from the Central Library and the patron can also request a genre instead of specific titles or write ‘no preference’ in the title field. There is a message in fine print saying the library understands that filling out a form online is not always the easiest thing for this age group to do, but they hope that relatives might be able to help out with filling in the form.
All library patrons can fill out a form to request a bag of 5 books. In this case it is based on genre, not specific titles. Perhaps you might find an unexpectedly awesome book this way. The patron can then pick up the bag at one of the neighborhood libraries (but not at the Central Library). The books will come from the same library where the pickup will occur.
The library also offers some online activities via a service called Bieb070@Home. (Bieb = Library. 070 = area code for The Hague.) The list of upcoming events includes a video of an online Christmas concert by the group “On The Jazz”, an interview in January with the city’s archeologist (yes, we have an archeologist) and more.
The Hague’s library system has also been heavily promoting the option of checking out e-books and audio books as well via their recently renewed Online Bibliotheekor “Online library” app. The only downside is that most of the books are in Dutch, but I found it pretty easy to use when I looked at it a few months back.
I can’t believe we’re almost at Christmas already… insane!
I was able to get a few photos of the Mauritshuis museum during a short walk this week. What do you think of the Christmas tree?
Mauritshuis is most known for Vermeer’s The Girl with a Pearl Earring. You can see a homage to this behind the right pillar in the image – but it is not exactly the painting, either. It is a digital display where the head and outfit change slightly every few seconds.
As you can see above, now the photo is of someone else with a blue cap instead of a headscarf.
You can also visit the museum virtually via this link (it is like Google Map’s Street View).
Page 1: a face mask with The Hague’s yellow and green colors. Page 2: a face mask with a The Girl with a Pearl Earring design. Page 3: a face mask from Museon, a science and culture museum in The Hague. Page 4: a face mask from HTM, The Hague’s public transportation company. Page 5: a face mask from a local soccer club. Page 6: a face mask with a depiction of Haagse Harry. Page 7: no idea, really.
On my way to the grocery store this morning I took some photos of this year’s Christmas tree in the Passage:
A new detail this year is the plants down the middle, to help remind people to stay on the right side while walking. It will be interesting to see if the plants are still around next year at this time, or if they really were just temporary during the Covid-19 crisis…
And here is a close up look. I found it a bit weird to be walking past stores today. For the most part everything was closed, but it felt more like a Sunday rather than closed for five weeks. Most of the stores had their lights on and there were not many signs in the windows saying they would be closed for a longer period of time.
Strangely enough when I walked past Peek & Cloppenburg (a clothing store), they did seem to be open. However maybe I saw incorrectly. The lights were on, the doors were wide open, and there were a few people going through the sweaters… so who knows.
The Dutch website indebuurt.nl (in the neighborhood) usually has a photo series called Toen & Nu or Then & Now. Today’s photo series only showed a difference of four days, but it was an important four days: 13 December and 16 December. In other words, before and after the five week lockdown came into effect.
The discussion about who can stay open during the lockdown and who must close continued today. Hema, a general merchandise retail store, decided to open today. Only essential items like food, baby clothes and toiletries were available. The original government ruling said that if it at least 30% of the items sold were essential, then that part of the store with essential items could remain open. The rest of the inventory would be unavailable for sale. (If the store sold at least 70% essential items the entire store could remain open.) Because at least 30% of what Hema sells is essential they decided to open yesterday. Problem is, other chains including Action and Wibra then decided they would re-open from tomorrow. And those stores’ stock is even less essential than Hema’s in my opinion.
That meant the Dutch cabinet went back into discussions last night and this morning. The end result: the 30% ruling is now gone, so you need to sell at least 70% essential items to stay open.
Fotoseries: Stil in Den Haag op de eerste dag van de lockdown, or Photos: Silence in The Hague on the first day of the lockdown [Tuesday]. Photos 9 and 11 are a bit political, since the pink ‘soon available for renting’ signs have the Dutch prime minister and the Health minister’s name listed as the realtor (Rutte and De Jonge).
Anderhalvemetersamenleving or 1-and-a-half-meters-society is Van Dale’s word of the year for 2020 (article from dutchnews.nl). Van Dale is a Dutch dictionary company. Anderhalvemetersamenleving took 30% of the vote, with 12,000 votes cast.
Here are a few interesting articles about the lockdown that are available in Dutch from nos.nl:
Hoe een telefoontje van Van Dissel alles veranderde – How a phone call from Van Dissel [Dutch virologist] changed everything. It’s an article about how we went from the press conference on the 8th to the hard lockdown announced last night. That’s less then a week if you are counting.
Above is a picture taken in De Passage (a covered shopping area) in The Hague last weekend. I thought it was cute to see the stockings hiding behind the windows on the second floor, which isn’t accessible to shoppers.
The Dutch minister held an emergency speech this evening to announce a hard lockdown beginning tonight at midnight. Just like the speech in March earlier this year, it took place in his work office at the Binnenhof (nicknamed Torentjeor “Little tower” – English Wikipedia).
…and because of this choice of location, it was much easier for protestors to make themselves heard, on live television, with whistling, shouting and general noisemaking. Oh well. Rutte did make mention of it halfway through his speech, pointing outside and saying “It is isn’t an innocent flu as some people outside here think”.
Here is a list of the most important rules, which take affect at midnight tonight and last until at least 19 January:
non-essential stores are closed (some of the exceptions are supermarkets, pet stores, pharmacies, gas stations and banks)
non-medical “contact” jobs are closed (hair stylists, massage parlors, nail salons, etc.) Medical “contact” jobs like dentists or physiotherapists are exempt.
from Wednesday all schools (elementary through university) are closed with online education the norm. There are a few exceptions for exams or “vulnerable” students. Daycares are also closed, except for parents with vital jobs.
only two guests are allowed per day (which the exception of December 24, 25 and 26 when you can have three guests per day). Groups outside can only consist of one household or of two persons total.
the urgent advice is again “stay at home as much as possible” and “don’t travel overseas or book trips until at least 15 March”.
museums, zoos, theaters and theme parks are closed. Libraries are also closed, although Rutte mentioned an exception for patrons to pick up and bring back reserved books or allow vulnerable youth to do their homework there. Whether or not the library offers this service is another thing.
indoor gyms will close. Some activity is allowed outside but only in groups of two with 1.5 meters distance. Youth under 18 can still exercise in groups, however.
The urgent advice of “work as much as possible from home” is still in effect.
At the moment the next press conference is scheduled for 12 January, when the government will discuss the next steps leading up to 19 January, the current end date for the hard lockdown.
Check out this Christmas tree which I saw by the Plein in The Hague:
Christmas tree near the statue of Willem de Oranje
It’s a cute Christmas tree, but I will admit it looks like someone had a bit too much fun with strips of toilet paper at the bottom. I assume it is actually tinsel, though.
I saw an even more creative Christmas tree over on the r/thenetherlands Reddit page:
(Alternative Christmas tree in Maastricht at the “Our Lady plaza”.) Those are café/restaurant chairs. Since the cafés and restaurants are only open for takeout or delivery these days, why not re-use them (or store them) as a Christmas tree? The best part: In the back on the left of the photo you see the hint of another Christmas tree.
The last few days have seen the number of coronavirus cases skyrocket. We’re now back to around 10,000 cases a day. There was an emergency meeting of the safety regions and the government today, with a few additional meetings tomorrow. It is unclear if they will hold a press conference this coming Tuesday or if they will hold it tomorrow, one day earlier than they usually would (press conferences generally happen on Tuesdays).
There are a few measures that could be taken:
closure of ‘through’ or ‘transfer’ locations where a lot of people meet, for example libraries, movie theatres, zoos, cinemas, etc.
closure of all not-essential stores (everything except supermarkets, pharmacies, etc.)
closing of schools
Of these I think either the first two are more likely. Interestingly the Netherlands actually did not close essential stores during the first wave back in March / April. It was always the store’s choice to close or not. However, Germany has also announced a hard lockdown that will last through 10 January so some are speculating that German tourists will travel across the border to do their Christmas shopping here unless we also go into a hard lockdown as well.
Roger surprised Marco and I with an early present: a Christmas ornament featuring “The Child” from the Star Wars Mandalorian TV show. Otherwise known by most as “Baby Yoda”.
And the view from the side:
In other news – unfortunately it was busy again today in The Hague city centre. In the tweet below you first have four photos from Regio15.nl showing the city centre (including the last photo, of the ever-present line by Primark) and then at the bottom of the tweet you have a message from The Hague’s mayor reminding people to pay more attention to the corona rules (spread out your Christmas purchases, shop online, keep 1.5 meters distance from others and wear a face mask where needed):
Het was vandaag behoorlijk druk in het centrum van #DenHaag. Lees hieronder de reactie van burgemeester Van Zanen, hij roept op om de drukte in het centrum morgen en de aankomende dagen te vermijden👇🏼 https://t.co/x6WaHB4BjJpic.twitter.com/ocI1SJWrAr
Life in the Hague 