Foto’s

Almost ready (Or: Leiden University’s Spui campus)

Posted on January 26, 2026 by Niki

Leiden University has facilities in both Leiden and The Hague, with approximately 25% of their students taking classes in The Hague. One of their newest locations, Spui campus, will open to students on 2 February.

The new location is in the building which used to house the V&D clothing store (1969-2015) and the Canadian store Hudson’s Bay (2017-2019). The main entrance on the side of the Grote Marktstraat is used by MediaMarkt (blog post), an electronics store similar to Best Buy in the US. But MediaMarkt only uses the lower two floors, so there is a lot of space left over in this six story building (20,000 square meters).

Here’s a look at the entrance for the Spui campus:

The entrance is across from the Centrum tram stop. (In fact, I stood on the platform while taking this picture.) The Queen’s Casino is to the left. Marco said this used to be the entrance for the V&D employees back in the day. The best part? Leiden University decided to keep the same font face that V&D used way back when, as you can see in the photo above.

Sneak preview: from department store to university building from universiteitleiden.nl.

To clarify, the new building will also house TU Delft, the Open Universiteit, Leiden University Medical Center and Universiteiten van Nederland, so there will be a lot of educational organizations under one roof. And then MediaMarkt, for all of your electronic needs…

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Snowpocalypse (Or: An inch of snow in The Hague!)

Posted on January 12, 2026 by Niki

Here are some photos from the snow that covered The Hague last week Wednesday. The entire week was quite wintery. Yesterday the low (overnight) temperature was -5C/23F, but to be fair the northern and eastern sides of the Netherlands had it worse, with up to 6 inches of snow last week and -10C/14F elsewhere. But with The Hague being so close to the coast, we don’t see numbers like that.

‘Damage is piling up’: has the Netherlands forgotten how to cope with snow? from The Guardian

Wednesday was quite pretty to be out and about, though. If you went early enough, the snow was still fresh, with the gorgeous crunch under your boots. You also didn’t have to worry about ice, since the snow was still too fresh and not pressed down by everyone walking on it.

Here are some of the photos I took that day:

The red scooter reminds me of the photo I took of the red scooter at Haagse Bluf in 2017.

Above, by The Sting clothing store, not far from the Grote Kerk.

Looking left of the previous image, towards Venestraat, a shopping street (marked by the stork lights).

Cafe seats outside of ‘t Goude Hooft, a restaurant and hotel.

Looking towards the old city hall (the red door is part of it), where Marco and I got married back in September 2013.

By the restaurant By Ami, which coincidentally was advertising for their Burlesque night, which is probably much more mild than you might think, as this is a restaurant after all. But I thought it was a nice juxtaposition to have the snow-covered summery trees next to an advertisement with a woman dancing in what is basically a one piece swimsuit.

No blog post is complete or Dutch enough without a bicycle, and in this case a fully snow-covered one.

Since The Hague is so close to the sea the snow was gone by Thursday. Yesterday was the coldest day of the week, as I mentioned, but today is already back up to 6C/43F, a more normal temperature for a Dutch winter.

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Fireworks in The Hague (Or: The final edition?)

Posted on January 4, 2026 by Niki

In theory this was the last year that fireworks could be purchased for New Year’s Eve in the Netherlands. I say in theory because the government said they were banning it, but they still need to work out compensation for the companies who sell fireworks. But I do expect it will be the last year.

Here’s a look at the aftermath in just one corner of The Hague the day after:

A lot of people don’t clean up after themselves as they expect the city will do it for them…

You can also check out a short 3 minute video of fireworks over The Hague just after midnight on New Year’s Eve.

And, just because I’ll forget to post otherwise, here’s a final picture of the holiday displays by Bijenkorf from a few weeks back:

In other news, we got some snow this weekend! The people setting off fireworks got really lucky because the weather turned on January 1, after the festivities were over. Of course, it is mostly slush here in The Hague. But there are some good pictures out there – check out Reddit for some beautiful pictures someone took today in The Hague.

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Christmas tram in The Hague (With: A Santa hat)

Posted on December 9, 2025 by Niki

I recently saw the Christmas tram riding around in The Hague. It was the second time I have spotted it this year, but this time I was able to stop and take a picture.

Don’t you think the Santa hat on top is cute? Apparently it has 6,300 lights on it and it also plays Christmas music non-stop. Haha. (I wouldn’t mind, though. It isn’t like you are in the tram that long.)

You can check out ovzoeker.nl to see where the tram is riding. The URL looks for HTM tram #3109.

Also, if you are in The Hague, check out the Royal Christmas Fair, which is open on the Lange Voorhout until December 23.

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Flags for Princess Amalia (Or: Decorations at the De Passage)

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Niki

Today when walking through De Passage I noticed that Dutch flags had been raised. After a second it clicked ー today is Princess Amalia’s 22nd birthday (Wikipedia). She is next in line for the throne.

Although you can’t see it that well in the photo, one of the big clues was the strip of orange also hanging by each flag, for the royal family.

In other news, if you are looking for something to do on New Year’s Eve, check out this article from indebuurt.nl (in Dutch): Everything about New Year’s Eve in The Hague.

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Golden lights (Or: Christmas tree in De Passage)

Posted on December 2, 2025 by Niki

Last week, the Christmas tree arrived in De Passage, a covered shopping area in The Hague.

This is in the older part of De Passage, outside of the Apple Store. The older part meets at this point. De Passage is designed in such a way that the Christmas tree is visible from everywhere.

Here is a photo from a bit further away, to give you an idea of how the area looks:

It’s a great place to walk through, especially when the weather is bad. The older part is a bit cold in the winter, but the new part closer to Grote Marktstraat is much warmer.

If you click the “De Passage” tag at the bottom of this post, you’ll see similar blog posts about this part of The Hague.

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Toothpaste and tanks (Or: Unexpected art)

Posted on November 3, 2025 by Niki

Recently I was walking along Prinsestraat in The Hague and I noticed some eye-catching art in the window at the art gallery Chiefs and Spirits:

Pretty cool, huh? I also squeeze my toothpaste tube to get every last bit out, so I enjoy it even more because of that, I think.

The Hague’s official website has a list of art galleries in city. For instance, De Affiche Galerij, or loosely translated, the poster gallery – it’s found in tram tunnel at Grote Marktstraat. Most people walk right on past, myself included usually. I need to stop and check the posters out more often!

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Surprise (Or: Giraffes walking through the Grote Marktstraat)

Posted on October 28, 2025 by Niki

Well, not real giraffes of course. But as part of De Betovering (an art festival for the youth), there were performers walking through the city centre a few weeks ago dressed up like giraffes:

And a close up:

Apparently there was also a hippo, although I didn’t see that one. You can read more about De Betovering on the official website, which translates to “The Enchantment” in English. The event was from 17 October to 25 October, during the autumn school holiday.

If you can, don’t forget to vote tomorrow! The vote is for the Dutch House of Representatives. In theory for the next four years, though the government seems to collapse faster than that lately. Of course, you need to have Dutch citizenship to vote, so I won’t be voting in this one. I do plan on getting it, but at this point it is easier to wait and do the option procedure, which I can do once I have lived here at least 15 consecutive years (and because I am married to a Dutch citizen for at least 3 of those years). So that would be after December 2027. Time flies…

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Christmas time (Or: Window decoration by Bijenkorf)

Posted on October 22, 2025 by Niki

The holiday window decorations are now in place by Bijenkorf, a high-end department store here in The Hague. Here’s a look at one of the windows:

The window reads: “Ook 100 jaar geleden bezorgde de Bijenkorf al aan huis”, or “100 years ago, de Bijenkorf was already making home deliveries”.

I found a news article which mentioned that their Christmas departments opened on 11 September (!). It’s early, of course, but going to Bijenkorf to look at Christmas ornaments and other decorations is a tradition for a lot of families. It sort of reminds me of the mall scene in A Christmas Story, only there is no Santa!

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Sun and blue skies (Or: A look back at August)

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Niki

Here is a reminder of how blue and bright August looked…

On the plus side for October, the oliebollenkraam is back! An oliebol is like a doughnut (in fact, an oliebol was the inspiration for donuts – see also Wikipedia). I believe the stand opened on October 1, the first date it is legally allowed to open. Here is a photo from October 2:

And this year they have a large message on the back, visible from far away:

It is quite bright and draws you in. That’s a good thing, since the stand is at the end of the shopping street. Visibility is key.

The website of the stand is available at https://www.dehaagscheoliebollenbakkerij.nl, although it doesn’t seem to be completely loading for me at the moment. But still – oliebollen!

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