Author Archives: Niki

This evening I took a photo of hooligans trespassing on the grounds of Buitenhof. I assume they took a swim to get there since they were wearing swim trunks. Ew. You couldn’t pay me to get in that water.

The photo isn’t of the best quality – this was at 10x zoom considering how far away they were. Can you spot the security guard to the right of the two gentleman, in the shadow of the tree? You can just see the white of his dress shirt. There were also 10 to 15 police agents in the area within a few minutes, including one mounted police officer trotting past. But I didn’t stick around to see how it ended.

Poor Buitenhof. It was already the site of a climate activist protest earlier this week.

As noted yesterday, Prime Minister Mark Rutte held a press conference this evening. Most of it was expected, but here are the highlights:

• testing will be available at Schiphol airport for passengers coming from high risk areas
• customers must leave their name and contact details if they eat out at a restaurant, café or terrace
• customers are now required to have a seat (and stay in the seat) at restaurants, cafés or terraces. This was already said earlier, but now it is required.
• if there is an outbreak at certain areas (restaurants, hotels, cafés, bars, theme parks, museums, etc.) they will be required to close for up to 14 days
• local governments now have more power to decide that establishments need to close by midnight or that fans are not allowed at football games if they don’t follow the rules

During one of my walks I noticed a Catholic church; the deep red door drew my eye first before I noticed the mosaic above it. (And no Dutch photo is complete without a random sighting of a bike as well.)

According to Google Maps this is the Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua. Here’s a close up of the mosaic pattern (a priest wearing brown robes and holding a staff):

In other news, imagine my surprise yesterday when a coworker sent along a meeting invite for next week Monday. The meeting is actually a social invite to mark 150 days of lockdown. I was so shocked that I googled it – yes, next Monday will be 150 days since we were last in the office. Crazy!

In unfortunate news: Coronavirus weekly figures worst than expected; up 95% versus last week. While the problem areas are Amsterdam and Rotterdam, if they list a third problem area it is usually The Hague. There’s a press conference scheduled for Thursday but the media doesn’t expect any countrywide changes.

Oh, and the small island in the Hofvijver (by the Buitenhof) was taken over by four Extinction Rebellion activists yesterday. See also regio15.nl’s article: Actievoerders Extinction Rebellion bezetten eilandje Hofvijver. Even if you don’t speak Dutch it is fun to look through the photos.