Author Archives: Niki

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About Niki

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

Legoland (Or: The Hague in miniature)

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Niki

As reported a bit earlier this year, Scheveningen will soon be home to a Legoland Discovery Centre, opening later next year. There is now a “mini Den Haag” on display at Legoland. The display includes a mini Scheveningen pier and Kurhaus, The Hague’s city hall, train station Holland Spoor and more.

Read more here (in Dutch, from omroepwest.nl): Preview van mini-Den Haag in Legoland

And here is another photo of some of our Christmas decorations, some of my favorites:

Since they are some of my favorites I am sure they have appeared on this blog before. The two snowman statues on the left and the right are from the Royal Christmas Fair The Hague. We loved them as soon as we saw them. The snowman in the middle is from Primark, a purchase made a few years ago.

I had to brush up on my vocabulary for the decoration in the middle. Apparently the dangling legs are called bungelbenen in Dutch. You learn something new every day.

Happy Friday, everyone. Enjoy your weekend! I will be using it as a chance to sleep in…

Categories: Holidays | Tags: | 2 Comments

Christmas menus (Or: Delivery and take out are all the rage)

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Niki

The good thing about the Netherlands in comparison to America is that you get two days of Christmas (25th and 26th) instead of just one. That means two days of Christmas meals. For one of the days we are planning on ordering from FOAM here in The Hague again. On the other day we will probably make something ourselves.

I did see an advertisement on indebuurt.nl that Food Hall MingleMush is offering their own Christmas menu (meat or vegetarian, 60 euros for two persons). They label it as a “around-the-world trip” of food since they have so many different restaurants adding food into that one box. The two menus are available at this link in English (getalacarte.com). It is tempting, and now I’m wondering if we can order it for the 22nd so that we aren’t completely stuffed anymore by the time Christmas rolls around. Hmmm. We haven’t been to MingleMush since before the corona crisis started, so it would be nice to see it again.

In other news: Non-EU citizens must present negative Covid tests at Dutch borders from Tuesday from nltimes.nl. I wasn’t aware that this rule was coming, although it doesn’t affect me personally. Most of the articles I have seen talk about the effect this will have on UK citizens, since they will no longer be EU citizens from January 1st.

And because we can always use a 1 minute video of lion cubs:

These two female lion cubs were born a few weeks ago at the zoo in Amersfoort. Cute.

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

Year in Search (Or: Google’s 2020 trends)

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Niki

Google has released their 2020 “Year in Search” page. You can see what trended worldwide or you can see what trended per country (the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom…). One interesting thing is that the trend categories differ per country. For instance the US has a category for games but the Netherlands doesn’t.

Here are the top 5 search terms for the Netherlands:

  1. Coronavirus
  2. RIVM (Dutch Health institute)
  3. Verkiezingen Amerika (US Election)
  4. Coronavirus Nederland
  5. Snappet (apparently this is education learning platform for elementary students, so digital learning)

The second most popular Why? question was Waarom hamsteren we wc papier? or Why do we horde toilet paper? This was apparently so popular back in March and April that it took the second spot, beaten only by Waarom zijn cornflakes uitgevonden? or Why were cornflakes discovered? (?!? Okay.) (On second thought: don’t Google it unless you want a trip to Bizzaro World.)

In other news: every year a Dutch radio channel plays the Top 2000 (Wikipedia) to mark the end of the year. In late November/early December the Dutch vote on their favorite songs and those votes help determine the list. Between Christmas and New Years the radio channel plays those songs. It was first done in 1999 to mark the transition to 2000; it proved so popular that it became a yearly event. This year it will start at midnight on Christmas Day (that is, the first second of Christmas) so that the radio show has an additional eight hours to play the full-length album versions of some songs.

Fun fact: since 1999 there have been only four occasions where Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody did not take the #1 spot. 2020 will be one of those years, with the Dutch country singer Danny Vera taking the top spot with his song Roller Coaster (YouTube).

Dutch country singer Danny Vera dethrones Queen in Top 2000 records from dutchnews.nl

Oh, but don’t feel too bad for Bohemian Rhapsody as it is still ranked #2.

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

Nothing unexpected here (Or: No relaxation of corona measures)

Posted on December 8, 2020 by Niki

There was another press conference from the Dutch prime minister this evening. The number of cases has been rising in the last week / week and a half, so it came as no surprise when Mark Rutte confirmed that the measures would not be relaxed. The number of guests allowed at Christmas and New Year’s festivities will stay at a maximum of three guests per day. He was also careful to point out that if the numbers keep getting worse, that the rules might become even stricter for the holidays. If there are more changes they will be announced at the next press conference, scheduled for 22 December.

He also poignantly stated that there will be about 10,000 empty chairs at the dinner table this year (a reference to the number of known corona-related deaths in this country).

Three guests for Christmas dinner, and tougher measures are on the cards from dutchnews.nl

Netherlands to first get 500K doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine; Half fewer than expected, also from dutchnews.nl. Previously it was reported that we would get 900K, with vaccinations starting on 4 January. Now vaccinations are scheduled for mid-January if all goes well. (But let’s face it: no one believed it would start on 4 January. From day one there were doubts with the government’s timeline.)

And for something completely different – the New Year’s Dive on 1 January in Scheveningen has been cancelled. Which means the main sponsor, Unox (a soup brand), decided to get a bit creative instead…

I don’t think it is quite the same. For one thing I doubt that the can of soup contains ice cold, freezing water which makes you question the life choices that led you to want to dip your fragile toes into the North Sea – but it is an interesting idea. If nothing else, it is a good souvenir of these crazy times. A souvenir that half of the country will also own and keep in their attics for 40 years, but I digress.

Most likely in 20 years one of these soup cans will be part of a museum exhibit about the coronavirus, so get yours now while you still can.

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Beef stew (Or: A blast from the past)

Posted on December 7, 2020 by Niki

Marco and I make beef stew in our slow cooker about once a year. The beef stew recipe we used this time was from Allrecipes. I like any recipe that only has two steps, don’t you? This time we did it on high setting (4-6 hours) because I had zero interest in stepping out of my nice warm bed before 09:00. In the end it cooked about 5 hours, with the last 30-45 minutes on medium instead of high.

The beef was so tender you could easily pull it apart with a fork. And as you can tell I think potatoes are the second hero of the dish, so I definitely made sure I had a lot of those. Finally, the bread in the background is from Albert Heijn and is their Liefde & Passie spelt brood (Love & Passion spelt bread – a bit hardier to help with the dipping).

The nostalgia is high with this dish. I loved eating this in the winter as a kid. This and chili are Marco and I’s favorite slow cooker dishes. Third place for me is probably pulled chicken.

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A new addition in Grote Markt (Or: Toilets)

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Niki

Kudos to The Hague for putting temporary public toilets on the Grote Markt. The most shocking of all: I didn’t see any signs that you had to pay, which would be quite normal in the Netherlands. Generally the only free bathrooms are found in restaurants or cafés.

Normally these barriers would be used for the Royal Christmas Fair. However, the fair was cancelled so the barriers could be put to a different use. And public toilets are very important right now. At the moment restaurants and cafés are only allowed to be open for takeout or delivery, so there not many public toilets available to shoppers at the moment.

I also saw some toilets by the plaza outside the Tweede Kamer parliamentary building, so it is not just on the Grote Markt. (Oh, and for American readers: yes, that’s TJ Maxx in the background. However in Europe the company goes by the name TK Maxx.)

Above is a tweet from the Scheveningen police, wishing everyone a nice Sinterklaas evening. Everyone opens their presents from Sinterklaas on the evening of December 5, aka last night.

Categories: Everyday purchases, Shopping, The Hague | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

National Cookie Day (Or: Gimmie gimmie gimmie!)

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Niki

(Okay, National Cookie Day was yesterday, but shouldn’t every day be National Cookie Day?)

I am salivating a bit after seeing this tweet from Disney Parks:

My favorite is the Molasses crackle cookies mentioned in the linked article (direct link to the recipe PDF at Disney.com).

In other news: Oude foto’s: Sinterklaas in Den Haag door de jaren heen, also from indebuurt.nl. Old photos of The Hague’s Sinterklaas throughout the years. One reason to click on the link is to see the pictures of gas masks being advertised as Sinterklaas presets in 1940.

Also of note: the benches at the Grote Markt between Hema and Blokker/Xenos are a bit more ‘corona proof’ these days: Coronaproof: Je kunt weer veilig op de bankjes aan de Grote Marktstraat zitten from indebuurt.nl. (Corona proof: You can now safely sit on the bench at the Grote Markt.) Not that many things in life are truly corona proof…

And if you are not currently in the Netherlands and wonder why I haven’t mentioned the number of corona cases lately… it is because the number fluctuates too wildly to be of much use:

The pink lines are the number of positive tests and the red line is the 7 day average.

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Holiday lights (Or: Decorations by the Haagsche Bluf)

Posted on December 4, 2020 by Niki

I write about the Haagsche Bluf sometimes (denhaag.com, in English). It is basically a small shopping area within a larger shopping area. The entrances are obvious but it is still easy to miss if you don’t know what you are looking for. I was out for a quick walk this morning when I spotted the holiday decorations by one of the entrances:

I also spotted a Christmas tree in the distance, via another entrance, but I don’t have pictures of that one. (Another tip: I saw workers wrapping Christmas lights around a large Christmas tree just outside of the restaurant/hotel ‘t Goude Hooft.)

In other news: Piccolo’s zorgen voor ‘gastveiligheid’ in Haagse binnenstad from omroepeest.nl in Dutch. In general terms, The Hague has hired “guides” to help with the expected crowds in The Hague’s city centre. I had to ask Marco for more information about what a “piccolo” was in this context. He said it was like a hotel bellhop who assists you with anything you might need. And indeed, they do look like bellhops.

The interesting thing is that their job is to be positive. If you are wearing a mask, they will thank you for it. If you are keeping one and a half meters distance, they will thank you for it. They will also help you if you need directions (for instance if you need to know where the closest public bathroom is) or similar.

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Christmas time (Or: A few of our decorations)

Posted on December 3, 2020 by Niki

Last weekend Marco and I put up the Christmas tree. (Or more accurately, Marco put up the Christmas tree and I helped. I believe I say that every year…)

And here is a photo of one of my favorite ornaments, from Disneyland Paris. It’s quite possible she has made an appearance in my blog before:

Marco also got a bit creative with the desk lamp. If we have to sit around at home working all day, why not bring a bit of holiday cheer to our work space:

That light has served us well. We actually have three of them – the other two are on our nightstands. We bought them from Ikea in Delft at least 5 or 6 years ago. They are fully flexible and very bright. The perfect light to read (or these days, work) with.

And one article today, from indebuurt.nl in Dutch: Fotoserie: Zo werd 25 jaar geleden het Haagse stadhuis gebouwd. There are nine pages of photos showing the construction of The Hague’s city hall (and library) 25 years ago. The latter pages show the construction of the library, which is pretty cool to see.

Categories: Holidays, Marco&Niki | Tags: | Leave a comment

Bijenkorf holiday windows (Or: 2020 edition)

Posted on December 2, 2020 by Niki

Here are some of the holiday windows Bijenkorf (a high-end retail store) here in The Hague. Bijenkorf is Dutch for beehive.

This one is Sinterklaas themed (you can see the music in backend and his staff in front of the music sheet). The white letters that are almost impossible to see say Muziek dat verbindt – the music that brings us together.
The mannequin was also slowly rotating. The white letters say Feest van samenzijn – Feast of being together (or a similar translation).
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Categories: Holidays, Shopping, The Hague | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

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