Foto’s

The weather has shifted over here in The Netherlands, with rain every day since late Sunday evening. This morning featured some moments of the sky opening up and rain gushing out. Let’s just say it as relatively dry as I was preparing for work. I was starting to wonder if I could get away with walking to work when it started to rain a bit more. So I took the tram. Between the tram and the office entrance (less than 2 minutes walk) my poor rain jacket was getting soaked.

But – we finally have some rain again! This week and next week is just rain, rain, rain… but with cooler temperatures as well. The apartment is finally cooling down a bit. Of course, two weeks of rain won’t help the effects of the drought, but it can at least help.

Here’s more photos of flowers from Marco. This time of a flower by Amare.

and another photo:

In other news:

• Online sleuth links Amsterdam’s “Lucky” to Canadian cold case from dutchnews.nl (although it is most likely not the same person who went missing in 1993)
• Criminelen verdienen miljoenen aan blikjes zonder statiegeld, meldt EenVandaag (Criminals earn millions with cans without a deposit) from nos.nl
• Temu and Shein orders drop in the Netherlands after EU tax from iamexpat.nl

Last weekend, Marco went to Kelly’s Expat Shopping. Along the way, he snapped a photo of some flowers on Vondelstraat (straat = street).

Back in 2021 I took a photo of a nice, tall sunflower on the same street. While at Kelly’s, Marco got me some Cheerios, yellow mustard and sour cream & chive pretzels. Yum!

The temperatures are rising here in The Netherlands. Europe swelters under deadly ‘Omega’ heatwave, more records expected (Reuters). Things are pretty bad in France, with Paris seeing temperatures of 41C or 105F. Luckily, things will finally begin to cool down in southern Europe later tomorrow and Friday — which of course means the heat is coming our way! We don’t have it as bad as Paris though. Today was 33C/91F in The Hague, with temperatures rising to around 35C/95F Friday here in The Hague.

To give you an idea, it’s currently 28C/82F in the apartment. But, if you aren’t used to air conditioning it really isn’t that bad (except when you’re trying to sleep – that is indeed annoying). Air conditioning still isn’t common in the Netherlands, although it is of course increasing in popularity thanks to summers like this.

Check out the live blog about the weather (in Dutch) at nos.nl.