Foto’s

A splash of purple, a splash of blue (Or: Graffiti in The Hague)

Posted on May 26, 2021 by Niki

Are you in the mood for some flower graffiti?

And another one:

if you look closely at the window you will notice the blinds in the upper left are also spray painted… Hopefully that was with permission!

The Dutch health ministry said that the lockdown easing on 5 June–step 3 of the opening plan–will likely go ahead (article from nltimes.nl). Also from nltimes:.nl: Netherlands to host opening stages of La Vuelta in 2022. There will be a team time trial and two opening stages in Utrecht, Den Bosch and Breda. Which means more opportunities to see images of Dutch cities on tv!

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Art in The Hague (Or: She belongs to no one but herself)

Posted on May 22, 2021 by Niki

Here is another piece of art found on the Achterom street:

I looked up the phrase “She belongs to no one but herself” and found this page for the “She project” at hansmahler.nl in English.

A while ago I posted about a poll that the city held to determine what stones would be used for the Spuiplein and in front of the city hall once the construction of the new cultural complex was complete. At the time I noted that most of the answers were “we don’t care, whatever is least slippery”. It is quite hard to walk there when it rains.

I did of course forget that a lot of skaters love that area because the current stones don’t have any grip. There is also a lot of echo in that area, so they might like the loud sound when their boards slam on the ground over and over again… Anyway, they are not pleased that it seems the city will be going for stones with more grip. Their wheels get stuck in the stone and the board doesn’t react the same way as before. Problem is that it is also an area a lot of people walk through to get from the city centre to the central station and vice versa, so it will be interesting to see what the city does.

The skaters will hold a “Save Spui” demonstration on Saturday, May 29 at 14:00. See also this article at omroepwest.nl in Dutch.

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Graffiti in the Achterom (Or: Woman with red hair)

Posted on May 21, 2021 by Niki

This graffiti can be found at the corner of Achterom and Kissemstraat, not far from The Passage. It is the same street where you can find the adorable cat graffiti. Or try this cat graffiti post. Because we can never have enough cats, right? (Actually, I’m more of a dog person.)

I don’t know if this graffiti has a title. But it definitely draws your eye as you walk past. The red hair is cleverly painted up until the edge of the wall, forcing you to glance down this side street to see all of it. It is almost impossible to miss.

Happy Friday, everyone!

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At her feet, flowers (Or: Statue in The Hague)

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Niki

Here is another photo of flowers for you, randomly placed at the feet of a statue in The Hague. Who knows why? These are quite beautiful flowers, though.

I’m partially posting this article because I like the title: The gym before breakfast on a cafe terrace: What changes today from dutchnews.nl. Today is the first day of step 2 in the government’s plan to reopen society. Some gyms opened at 00:01 this morning, and cafés are now allowed to open from 06:00. So the title makes sense.

And here is some good news for the Netherlands: Corona patient numbers down by nearly 150, cases drop 25% in a week, also from dutchnews.nl. The last time we had such a large drop in patient numbers was January 1. That feels like a lifetime ago.

The Netherlands has a long way to go in comparison to other European countries. However we are getting there, helped in part by the vaccination program speeding up (we are closing in on 150,000 vaccines given each day).

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Muzenplein (Or: Sun with a bit of shadow)

Posted on May 18, 2021 by Niki

The Muzenplein is a hidden gem not far from The Hague’s Central Station. Marco and I went for a walk this afternoon after work to get a bit of fresh air and sun. The Muzenplein did not disappoint.

There is just a bit of shadow at the bottom, obscuring the flowers. The city has planted these tulips all over the city centre to give it a bit more color. Here is a closer look:

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A start to the event season (Or: The European Songfestival)

Posted on May 16, 2021 by Niki

While most things have been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, some events are still going on. One of them is the European Songfestival. Rotterdam is hosting the festival because the Netherlands won in 2019 with Duncan Lawrence’s Arcade number (YouTube).

The opening ceremonies are tonight – actually they are going on right now. It isn’t without a bit of controversy: Poland unable to join Eurovision opening ceremony after coronavirus infection from nltimes.nl. Since that article was published Iceland also had a positive corona test. Romania and Malta also decided not to attend the opening ceremony because they are in the same hotel as Poland and Iceland.

The finale will be next weekend, Saturday evening to be exact. I do want to watch at least the beginning of it, since hey, it’s Rotterdam. We will probably get to see a few beautiful shots of the famous bridge:

This photo was taken during Marco and I’s 3rd wedding anniversary.

But normally it is hard to watch the entire songfestival. It doesn’t end before midnight and that means the final results come in after 01:00. It can also be pretty political at times…

Marco said he will watch a bit so that get a bit of the “Dutch feel”. It has been 40 years since the Netherlands hosted the event, and probably another 40 years before we host it again.

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Time to tango (Or: A mysterious door in The Hague)

Posted on May 14, 2021 by Niki

I took this photo of a door on the Lange Poten street in The Hague’s city centre. It is between the KPN store (a telephone and Internet provider) and Kruidvat (a Dutch pharmacy chain).

It stood out to me because the door looked like a normal door for a residence, however the details around it suggested otherwise:

But no, it is not a residence. Tango Centro is an Argentinian dance school. Who knew. I am sure it has been around for years, but I only noticed the door while standing on the other side of the street waiting for Marco.

And in other news – remember how I mentioned a Dutch initiative to create a website to prevent corona vaccines from being thrown in the trash at the end of the day? Well. Website for left-over vaccines takes action after massive demand from dutchnews.nl. Apparently the doctor’s practice in question had a queue of over 100 people for 20 leftover vaccines. Although that isn’t a bad ratio, considering…

The website has made a few changes, including removing the practice’s phone number to prevent doctor’s offices from being overwhelmed with phone calls. That makes sense.

Anyway. We all know what day it is – happy Friday, everyone!

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Englandspiel (Or: A plaque in the Binnenhof)

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Niki

A few months back I talked about the shortcut you could take to get in and out of the Binnenhof. In that area you can also find a plaque about the Englandspiel (English Wikipedia), a German counterintelligence operation held during World War II. The German forces captured nearly all of the British and Dutch allies, executing 50 of them.

Marco took this photo last week, hence the flowers for Remembrance Day on May 4.

The topo of the plaque reads “They leapt to death for our freedom”.

In other news, Ajax (the Dutch football champions) posted this video on Twitter. They melted the championship trophy into 42,000 stars to give to each of their season ticket holders as a thanks for their support over the last season. Each star weighed 3.45 grams.

Read more at nltimes.nl: Ajax melts championship dish, awards a piece to season ticket holders

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Embassy #242 (Or: The Canadian embassy in The Hague)

Posted on May 4, 2021 by Niki

There are a lot of embassies in The Hague. Apparently I was wrong to guess that the Canadian embassy is #242, as of course there is a Wikipedia page for listing how many embassies there are. There are about 120, 125 embassies in The Hague apparently!

Here is the Canadian embassy:

It’s right next to Plein 1813 which I blogged about a few days ago.

In random news: Dutch researchers are training bees to detect coronavirus from nltimes.nl. Although if you’re into animal welfare (or insect welfare, in this case) I recommend not clicking on the link.

And: Over 30% now have coronavirus antibodies, blood donation agency says from dutchnews.nl. It’s based on random sampling for about 2,000 donations per week for some months now. Although herd immunity isn’t achieved until 67% (at least).

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Plein 1813 (Or: A lovely view from tram 1)

Posted on May 2, 2021 by Niki

Plein 1813 is a monument commemorating the victory over Napoleon (denhaag.com, in English) and the end of the French era in the Netherlands. It’s a beautiful monument, surrounded by seasonal flowers that are replanted throughout the year in different colors. Traffic flows around both sides of the monument, providing a lovely view if you are taking tram 1 to Scheveningen.

Here is how it looks from Google Maps:

You have to love the symmetry.

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