Foto’s

Flower by Amare (Or: Summer days)

Posted on August 4, 2026 by Niki

Marco took some photos of the flowers outside of Amare, a multi-use building for culture, education, music and dance. Of course, my favorite is the one with the tram in the background!

Marco also pointed out that if you look closely you can spot a bee at the bottom of the sunflower. You can also see some benches; this is the perfect place to sit when you don’t mind a bit of sun.

Here’s a photo of some pretty purple flowers, because, well, purple.

We can’t really complain too much this summer. We did have a heat wave in June, but lately it has mostly been temperatures of 25C/77F, although yesterday and today were around 31C/88F.

Tip for those in the Netherlands: there will be a partial solar eclipse (about 90%) on Wednesday, August 12. Article in Dutch.

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An Evening at the Castle (Or: dEUS rocks Slot Zeist)

Posted on July 20, 2026 by Niki

Earlier this month, Marco and Roger went to see the Belgian band dEUS at Slot Zeist, a castle built in the French baroque style. It was built between the 1670-1680s (Dutch Wikipedia).

Here are some pictures Marco took of the charming landscape:

and also one of the concert setup:

You can read more about the building at visittheheuvelrug.nl. The closest major city to Zeist is Utrecht, with a bus connection to Zeist. Here’s a look at the nighttime view:

And — not that this is only a Dutch phenomenon — there was also a place to quietly drop your drugs before entering the queue. There is just enough room at the top to slide your drugs into the hole, where they drop down.

You don’t see that every day! I wonder if anyone used it…

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Vondelstraat (Or: Flowers in The Hague)

Posted on June 24, 2026 by Niki

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.

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Buitenhof (Or: Blow Up Jubilee 2026)

Posted on June 16, 2026 by Niki

There’s still a bit of time to check out the art installation Blow Up Jubilee found in parts of The Hague’s city centre. It runs until 21 June. Here’s a look at some art in the Buitenhof pond:

For other photos, check out the link above and scroll down slightly to click on ‘More photos’. The craziest one is probably the tunnel through the green balloon (the one called ‘Tunnel’ by Steve Massam).

I’m looking forward to the good weather coming on Friday! Up to 32C/90F, with the usual chance of thunderstorms because of it. Unfortunately I do have to work. Oh well!

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Flowers and rain (Or: Lilac bushes)

Posted on May 18, 2026 by Niki

Recently Marco compared this photo of a lilac bush in The Hague:

Just a bit of spring while we wait for summer. For the longest time we had some decent weather and not much rain, but the last week or so has been rain, rain, rain. We have a few more days of this to go, but it looks like the long holiday weekend (off on Monday for Whit Monday) will feature some nice weather, with highs around 22-24C or 71-75F. For the Netherlands, that’s pretty good! I am looking forward to soaking up some sun myself.

279 flights delayed at Schiphol as security queues, border checks disrupt operations from nltimes.nl

MV Hondius arrives at port of Rotterdam; Hantavirus risk “low” for world population: WHO, also from nltimes.nl

The Japanese Garden at Clingendael is open until June 7 (denhaag.nl)

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Year of the horse (Or: Legos in the Mall of the Netherlands)

Posted on April 21, 2026 by Niki

Last month, Marco, Roger and I visited the Mall of the Netherlands to check out the new Takumi location, which offered sushi as well as the usual ramen. The sushi was pretty good but the service was a bit “off”, probably because of being located in a mall. It didn’t quite have the same feel as the other locations.

Before that we also visited the Lego store in the mall. Here are a few photos of the sets they had on display. This first set was for the Year of the Horse (Chinese New Year).

They also had a cool looking aquarium:

I am not really a fan of Legos, as I am not that creative, but I do enjoy seeing what others have built. If I had to choose I would prefer to put a jigsaw puzzle together! Even that takes ages…

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Storks and nests (Or: Spotted in Rijswijk)

Posted on April 13, 2026 by Niki

Last month while visiting Rijswijk I spotted a stork walking around in the grass. I snapped a photo of their adventure (with a good zoom, to not disturb it):

I remembered that I had seen storks in this area before a few years back. Sure enough, I turned around and the nest was in the same place, high up at the top of a building. The area underneath the nest looked cleaner back then, though…

I also spotted some cherry blossom trees:

And a close up:

Very pretty, if you ask me!

If you will be in The Hague at the end of the month, don’t forget The Life I Live festival is soon approaching on Sunday, April 26. This a free event held the day before King’s Day in The Hague’s city centre, with a handful of podiums set up at the Grote Markt, Lange Voorhout, Kerkplein and Plaats. The full program is also available at indebuurt.nl.

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100th anniversary (Or: Bijenkorf in The Hague)

Posted on April 7, 2026 by Niki

Bijenkorf in The Hague celebrated its 100th anniversary over the weekend. Marco took a lovely picture of the decorations on the outside:

Of course the decorations are in yellow and green, the colors of The Hague flag.

And because I think they are awesome, here’s a look at some of the stained glass inside the staircases. One great reason to skip the elevator:

Categories: Daily Dutch living, Shopping, The Hague | Tags: | Leave a comment

A good way to commemorate (Or: 50th anniversary 10km CPC medal)

Posted on March 16, 2026 by Niki

A colleague of mine ran the 10km at the City-Pier-City (CPC) run over the weekend. The starting point was at the Malieveld and it went away from the city centre, towards Scheveningen. I thought the medal was too gorgeous not to share:

It has, a nice, solid weight with a lovely finish. I am not sure if they are usually this pretty or if it was because it was the 50th anniversary of the run. Some of the buildings featured include (I think) the Haagse Toren, the Hoftoren, the Kurhaus, the ferris wheel in Scheveningen and the Ridderzaal.

Luckily the weather was good yesterday. Earlier last week it looked like it would rain most of the afternoon. Though my colleague did mention that there were so many people there that it was hard to find anyone as even WhatsApp wasn’t working well. Ticket sales were really fast this year, with almost everything gone after the first day, so it makes sense that the event would be quite crowded.

In other news, here is your “What the…” news story of the day:

Defense employee arrested after large haul of military equipment found in home from nltimes.nl. “The search of the residence on Bilderdijkstraat uncovered weapons, bulletproof vests, helmets, field beds, tents, knives, tools, tablets, ammunition, and cash. Two buses were used to try and remove the items, but a fully loaded Defense truck was later called in due to the volume of material. The total number of items seized has not been confirmed.”

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Across the road (Or: A misty dag in The Hague)

Posted on March 10, 2026 by Niki

Earlier this week the Netherlands had a few misty mornings. It was pretty interesting to see most of The Hague’s skyline gone.

Here’s a random picture of the mist, near the Paleistuin.

Here’s a bonus picture of a very quiet moment in De Passage, the covered shopping area in The Hague’s city centre. The flowers in the middle were a nice touch.

It’s a pretty quiet week here. Unfortunately, spring seems to have disappeared again, as the temperatures are more around 10C/50F. The random misty mornings make it colder, too.

Here are some random events coming up:

Sunday, March 15: City-Pier-City (CPC) run, with distances of 5km, 10km and a half marathon.

Sunday, March 15: St. Patrick’s Day festival at the Grote Markt. So you can run in the CPC and then have a nice cold one.

Municipal elections, March 18: information from The Hague International Centre (I will definitely be voting, since I can actually vote in this one!)

Last Sunday of each month, e.g. 29 March: salsa and bachata lesson outside the Bijenkorf on the Grote Marktstraat at 13:00. So random I just had to mention it.

See more events at DenHaag.com.

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