Here is a quick photo taken outside of the local Asian store, Amazing Oriental. Sometimes it is busy enough that you just gotta social distance yourself. There are small bits of caution tape along the wall letting you know where to stand.
Kudos to the store for keeping a manageable amount of people inside at the one time – you’re only able to enter when the worker brings back a free shopping cart. It was also a relatively fast moving line as the average wait was only two or three minutes.
Here is a sign spotted a few days ago by the Sostrene Grenes store:
I’ll admit I just thought it was a nice sign in the corona times, but Marco explained that it also a pun on the existing phrase ‘Houd je haaks!’ which is said when someone leaves. It means something like ‘Stay safe’, ”Keep well’ or ‘Take care’. The two phrases–Houdjehaaks and HoudjeHaags–sound very similar when spoken aloud, but of course #HoudjeHaags is the phrase Dutchies from The Hague would use.
And if you’re interested, the city of The Hague would like to sell you a t-shirt with that phrase, with a bit more than half of the proceeds going to charity.
Happy King’s Day, everyone! First, a picture of a mural in the city centre:
This mural is found at the entrance of what used to be one of the Amazing Oriental franchises until a few months ago. It’s in the Markthof, a small shopping area, at the entrance across from Momiji sushi. This one shouldn’t be confused with the larger Amazing Oriental franchise that is underground on the Grote Markt street. This store still exists but without the Amazing Oriental branding.
Not the best picture I’ve taken, but I needed to adhere to social distancing rules. This picture shows about 2/3rds of the mural.
Are you interested in seeing a short time lapse of tulip fields blooming, taken from a European Space Agency satellite? Check out the view at www.esa.int.
Marco spotted this poem on the side of a building in The Hague city centre. It’s across from the MediaMarkt (to the left of the photo is the Rootz restaurant).
In English it reads:
Mirror, mirror on the wall
I want to walk on the beach, hand in hand
I want to greet people on the street
and give a hug to the neighbor
with whom I talk
I want to eat something with others
without having to measure 1.5 meters
I want to look at how the tulips bloom
and stand in line for a party
I want to enjoy the spring sun
and walk with friends around the block
But for now we need to call each other
and be nice, even if it is with a small gesture
And then—before we know it—
we’ll be with each other again…
Happy Friday, everyone! Here is a photo I took during a walk yesterday:
On the left you have the Binnenhof, on the right you have the Mauritshuis, an art museum. Perhaps you know its most famous painting? The Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer.
In the background, the water leads to the Hofvijver pond, of which I’ve taken countless photos of over the years.
Okay, I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of delivery. I would gladly do takeover over delivery any day. I think I am in the minority, though!
Check out the sign by the local Momiji Sushi and Momiji Ramen. They are special enough to have two websites and two entrances (normally) – even though they are run by the same company and you can walk from one part to the other.
I am definitely a fan of the color work on that sign. I think maybe I’ll suggest we get some sushi… or ramen… this weekend. Yum!
Fun side note: “Ramen” means “windows” in Dutch. Let me tell you, Marco loves to make jokes about their windows every time we walk past. (I love that. Usually…)
Support your local business and stay safe, everyone.
Last night Marco and I went for a walk, a bit later in the evening around 20:00. While the weather was turning cooler it was still a nice walk through a fairly peaceful city centre. Actually, when we walked through the (deserted) Binnenhof what I noticed the most was the silence – not even the birds were chirping.
One thing we noticed was a face mask on the statue of “Jantje” or “Little John”:
Jantje was a boy who died at the age of 15… in the year 1299. He’s part of a Dutch children’s song about The Hague. If you ask him where his father lives, he’ll point with his finger to the Binnenhof, as his father’s estate used to reside in the space where the Binnenhof now stands.
Marco remarked on the dislocation of the finger – most likely a lot of people touch it due to the song.
And here is a bonus picture taken by Marco:
That’s a great angle, if I say so myself.
Happy Friday everyone! ☀️ We made it to the weekend.
I would also like to give a shout to my mother who has an irregular job which is not only Monday-Friday – hope you’re getting some time off here and there!
It has now become routine to check the numbers from RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) in the afternoon, as they release statistics about the coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations around 14:00 every day. They seem to have increased their server load in the last week or so as the site doesn’t freeze around that time anymore.
Note: The Netherlands has increased testing capacity in the last week, so the number of confirmed cases is going up due to that. They are now able to test healthcare workers outside of hospitals, including workers who work in home healthcare.
The statistics regarding ICU beds can be found at NICE (National Intensive Care Evaluation) although that page is not available in English. Daily numbers are released sometime after 16:00 each day. Also note the time stamp at the top of the page is whatever the time was when you visited the site, not the last time that it was updated. But keeping an eye on the ICU beds is important is this country as we needed to quickly increase our numbers to be able to handle the expected strain in the ICU.
In either case, the numbers aren’t complete yet as some hospitals send in their reports a day or two later. For example our country generally has a higher number of deaths on Tuesdays as they include deaths over the weekend and on Monday.
Here’s a photo from The Hague Centraal train station earlier this morning:
ProRail is responsible for the infrastructure and capacity of the rail transport lines, while NS (which I mention sometimes in this blog) is responsible for most, but not all, of the passenger transport in The Netherlands.
And a look at the current tram schedule at the train station:
At the moment, trams operate every 20 minutes during the day on a weekday and every half hour in the weekend.
Stay safe!
Ahh, weekend! It’s an early one, but we’re getting four days off. My work gives both Good Friday and Easter Monday as paid holidays, and Marco took tomorrow off and gets Easter Monday as a paid holiday. This has been a long work week. It’s not the work itself, just the constant working from home situation, I think.
This is the end of week #5 for working at home, and my expectation is that we’ll also be working from home in May as well. Or at least partially working from home so that the social distancing and 1.5 meters rule can be enforced on the work floor. For instance by saying only half the workforce can go into work each day, and alternating who goes in each day.
So hopefully that explains the long walk Marco and I took in the afternoon yesterday – sometimes you just need to get out and stretch. Here is a look at Malieveld – unbelievably empty on a day when temperatures reached 71F / 22C. It was the first time I took off my jacket in many months, I must admit. And the first time in a while that I wondered if I should have put sunblock on…
There were a few people in the grass in the distance, but not many. You can also see that the grass still hasn’t completely recovered from the farmer protests back in October of last year. Check out this aerial photo: Reddit link.
Looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow. And maybe stretching my legs and going for a socially distant walk at some point.
It’s a bit too small for you and me, but I found the perfect hotel for bees and insects here in The Hague:
Marco and I took a walk in the afternoon to get some fresh air. We walked along the Malieveld, a large grass field not far from The Hague Centraal train station. It’s perfect for hosting concerts, carnivals and other events. Oh and farmer protests, too.
The bee and insect hotel was on the property of the Provincial house of South Holland (The Netherlands is split up into provinces, and this is the main contact address for the province).
Good news of the day: for the first time since the corona crisis began, more patients have left the ICU than entered it. In total there are 16 fewer occupied beds (1424 beds yesterday versus 1408 today), including the ICU beds in Germany housing Dutch patients (52).
Read more at: Druk op IC-bedden neemt voor het eerst in coronacrisis af (nos.nl)
Life in the Hague 