Author Archives: Niki

About Niki

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

Water and trees (Or: Photos of The Hague)

Posted on October 29, 2024 by Niki

Here are a few photos that I took around The Hague this month. First, a canal with some beautiful flowers and clouds:

Then, a set of apartments and a pond around the S100 road (a main artery), also known as the Burgemeester Patijnlaan. Apparently it is the Athena condominiums. Who knew?

And finally, a photo of a crazy looking tree along the Koninginnegracht, another main road where tram 9 runs. The trees stand on the edge of a canal. It’s most likely the same canal in the first photograph, just in a different part of the city. It’s all interconnected.

It’s definitely the type of tree which could feature in a Halloween story, if the lighting was a bit darker.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Canals, Centrum | Leave a comment

Graffiti by Five K Comfort Food (And: Good chicken)

Posted on October 22, 2024 by Niki

Marco, Roger and I went to Five K Comfort Food in The Hague’s city centre on the Gedempte Gracht. Its speciality is Asian fusion. Roger also likes it because they have ice cream floats… a bit of a sweet tooth, that one!

Although my blog post title promises chicken, unfortunately I don’t have photos of that. My apologies. But I take a photo of the graffiti at the table next to us before another group sat there:

I had the orange popcorn chicken. It was really good, and it was a great portion size (bordering on too much for one person). If we hadn’t been going to a movie after, I definitely would have asked for a doggy bag and taken the rest home. Marco and Roger had a few different types of chicken wings plus they shared a platter of duck pancakes.

Categories: Food | Tags: Centrum, Restaurants | Leave a comment

Start of the holiday season (Or: Lights at De Passage)

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Niki

De Passage (the covered shopping area in The Hague’s city centre) has started getting ready for the coming holiday season. It’s a bit early, but in the Netherlands the first holiday is Sinterklaas. That holiday is on 5 December, a full three weeks before Christmas.

It’s not much yet (there’s no Christmas tree yet), but it’s a start.

And in other news: Jeers for beers: mechanic chucks out artwork at Lisse museum from dutchnews.nl. The artwork was two handprinted beer cans left on display in an elevator, so the mistake definitely makes sense. The museum has gotten a lot of publicity due to it, so I am sure they are happy. (The not-beer cans were later found in the trash, so there was no harm done.)

Categories: Holidays, Shopping, The Hague | Tags: Art, De Passage | Leave a comment

Ice cream, you scream (Or: Desserts by SET restaurant)

Posted on October 9, 2024 by Niki

Last weekend Marco and I went to SET restaurant here in The Hague for lunch. I had a bento box, which is what I always get for lunch there because it is so good. I didn’t take a picture this time since I have posted about it before. As always: yum!

On this rare occasion I also decided to get dessert. Here is Marco’s dessert, a mochi ice cream mix.

I have to admit, the restaurant name in powdered sugar is a nice touch. Almost like they know these photos will show up on social media…

I went for the green tea ice cream. It was a great choice, since the ice cream was a slightly more bitter green tea.

Did you know there is a store in Tokyo which sells 7 different types of matcha ice cream (reddit.com)? With 7 being the most bitter and the most intense. That is what I was thinking of while having this ice cream, although I’d probably rate it as 4 or 5 on the “intensity scale”.

Categories: Food | Tags: Desserts | Leave a comment

Oliebollen time! (Or: Grote Marktstraat in the rain)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Niki

As mentioned in my last post, the oliebollen stand opened yesterday, 1 October. As you can see it was immediately swarmed.

Marco also made good on his promise to go take the picture above and buy oliebollen, so we already had our first ones of the season yesterday evening, with the obligatory coffee.

And yes, it is rainy in the Netherlands of late. I took a chance this morning by not bringing my umbrella on my walk to work. I regretted it around the halfway mark. Boo. It looks like there will be less rain the rest of the week, though.

Categories: Everyday purchases, The Hague | Tags: Centrum, Oliebollen, Weather | Leave a comment

Christmas in September (Or: At Bijenkorf)

Posted on September 29, 2024 by Niki

I was in Bijenkorf yesterday picking up a greeting card when I spotted a sign that the Christmas section was available on the third floor. Of course I just had to see for myself…

It’s true. So I decided to take a few photos of ornaments. The soy sauce because the animal was cute.

And this because it is oliebollen (Wikipedia). Yum.

Oh, and stayed tuned for pictures of the oliebollen stand on the Grote Marktstraat, perhaps. Marco and Roger spotted it yesterday after we went to the movies (we saw Transformers One), although we suspect that the stand won’t open until Tuesday (October 1). It is always interesting how it either opens on October 1 or November 1. Pre-covid it wouldn’t be allowed to set up shop before November 1, but they made an exception for a few years in 2020-2021. But I thought last year it didn’t open until November 1.

Anyway – it is almost oliebollen time!

Categories: Holidays | Tags: Bijenkorf, Christmas, Oliebollen | Leave a comment

Flowers by the Paleistuin, The Hague (Or: A bit of color)

Posted on September 22, 2024 by Niki

A few weeks back Marco and I walked through the Paleistuin while waiting for a dinner reservation at Niko, a Japanese restaurant. I took a photo of some of the flowers at the Paleistuin (=Palace Garden).

It was a just a bit of colour to break through all of the green. I think it is a bit too late in the year to see lots of different colors at these gardens, unfortunately.

Here is a look at some of the food we had at Niko:

Above is a salmon dish – and my favorite photo.

Above is an eel dish. I am not the biggest fan of eel, but in small quantities it’s fine. The cucumber underneath was de-li-cious, though, after soaking in that awesome sauce.

Above is a beef tartare dish. I don’t like anything with egg that still looks like egg (cooked or uncooked), but once someone else stirs it in I’m fine with it. It was pretty tasty, actually.

Roger’s mochi dessert. If you have never had mochi, this might be an interesting article to read: Trying and failing to describe the texture of mochi.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Flowers, Restaurants | Leave a comment

Rainbows (Or: Rainy day at the Peace Palace)

Posted on September 16, 2024 by Niki

Check out this photo I took of the Peace Palace (Wikipedia) last week:

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Tourist attraction, Weather | Leave a comment

Dutch news in easier language (Or: Not just for foreigners)

Posted on September 9, 2024 by Niki

NOS, the Dutch public broadcaster, has launched a new daily news broadcast at 17:00 called NOS Journaal in makkelijke Taal or “NOS news in easy language”. In 2021 they started a weekly news channel on YouTube and now they are changing to a daily format. It will be shown on television at 17:00 as well as on YouTube. They will focus on three topics per broadcast, with each broadcast lasting about 5 minutes, give or take.

It’s quite similar to their Lang verhaal kort or “Long story short” podcast which I have followed for years. The podcast has episodes every weekday, about 5 minutes each, describing one topic. Each episode ends with a short summary so you can be sure of what you just heard.

Here are some news articles about the new service NOS is offering:

NOS Journaal in Makkelijke Taal van start from nos.nl (in Dutch)

Dutch broadcaster launches news bulletin in easy-to-understand language from theguardian.com

The nice thing is the service isn’t just aimed at foreigners – it is also aimed at residents who don’t have the required language skills to follow the news, or the elderly, or similar. The NOS also has a daily news program for children and/or teenagers (NOS jeugdjournaal) but as you can imagine, that is a different audience than the one they are trying to serve with this version.

I don’t need this “easy news” service anymore, but it would have nice when I first moved here. However, the article from The Guardian mentions the letters the Dutch government sends and how hard those can be to read. I agree wholeheartedly as I find most of the letters I receive from the government annoying to read. They are too longwinded. Just get to the point already. A lot of my coworkers who don’t speak Dutch well enough yet will bring the letter to the office and ask around for help translating them.

Categories: Daily Dutch living, Learning Dutch | Leave a comment

In De Passage (Or: Hat Exhibition Chapeau!)

Posted on September 5, 2024 by Niki

The hat exhibition “Chapeau!” has returned to De Passage in The Hague’s city centre:

De Passage is a covered shopping area first opened in 1885. Insane! That makes it the oldest shopping area in the Netherlands.

More than 20 years ago a hat store in De Passage closed, but the stock was never removed from the upper area above the shop. In 2020, 3,000 hats were found. In 2022 (and again this year), 2,000 of those hats were put on display. This is the same spot where they display the Christmas tree every year.

Read more at the official website in Dutch or English.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: De Passage | Leave a comment