The Netherlands has been under a cold spell recently. The wind changed direction and started coming from Siberia. No joke. There was one day with a temperature that felt like -20c (-4f). Brrr!
But it did bring out some nice photos, including one of mine:
I am happy to report that the wind changed direction on Sunday, so the breeze bit of snow is now gone again. Not that I have anything against snow, but this country definitely doesn’t know how to deal with it.
Marco, Roger and I visited Brooklyn burgers and steaks in Scheveningen a few weeks back. Marco had a Mexican burger and I had a classic burger.
Check out Roger’s New York strip steak:
He approved!
And here’s my apple pie with powdered sugar on top:
Interesting thing about this apple pie… I actually didn’t want it, but I got tripped up with my Dutch. I wanted to say “bakje koffie” (small cup of coffee) but instead said “gebakje koffie”. Gebak is the word for dessert/pastry. Since Marco and Roger had both ordered apple pie and coffee before me, that’s what she thought I wanted. Opps. It was good though! I just had to make room…
Sign at MingleMush, the food hall I blogged about a few months back:
Loosely translated as: “Doe voorzichtig! Je gaat naar buiten waar iedereen gestrest is. Red jezelf en blijf met ons!”
Silly Mondays…
Here’s a cute little flower at Lebkov, a café in The Hague…
On Thursday Europe was hit with a “wind storm”, which sounds a lot wussier than it actually was. Not much rain, but it still managed to bring the country to a halt for the day. The good (or bad) news was that the peak of the storm was around 11am, which meant that most people were able to get into work. But getting home was another matter entirely…
By about 10 or 10:30am The Hague tram system was shut down. Not surprising, since about 15 minutes before the shutdown someone tweeted a photo of a tram shelter’s roof after it flew off in the wind. Two glass panels actually – the second one is behind the right tram shelter. (Here’s a look at a tram stop roof in better times.) The buses shut down about 15 minutes after the trams.
The Washington Post has an article with a collection of photos and videos from the storm (including the person flying across the plaza in Den Bosch, which every Dutch person has seen at least once now, and the guy too stubborn to let go of his bike in The Hague).
The only picture I have of the day is someone standing in the glass at a tram stop that night:
I was looking through my photos from last month and realized that I hadn’t posted my photos of Bijenkorf yet!
Holiday lights (the same every year, but always pretty!)
Bijenkorf does different window decorations every year. A lot of businesses in The Hague take part in holiday window displays (see the TINK competition).
And this one:
This year the Christmas tree was rather simple, at least compared to previous years:
It was of course as tall as ever – the base started at the top of the ground floor, with the peak reaching to floor 5. As evidenced by the escalators at the left…
Check out the Coke and Diet Coke can ornaments in the upper right. I especially like the slightly ‘frosty’ look. Cute!
Recent photos that I took of Hop & Stork in De Passage, a covered shopping area in the heart of The Hague. The creations they can make with chocolate are just insane…
Dressed up and on your way to a fancy Christmas soirée…
Tasty!
A few days back I was doing some Christmas shopping at “The Fred” which is short for Frederick Hendriklaan, a street in the Statenkwartier neighborhood. There are a lot of international organizations and businesses in this part of The Hague.
Much to my delight, I saw some cute Christmas decorations:
There was also Pluto:
And Olaf:
I never knew how popular Frozen was until I went to Disneyland Paris last month…
Apparently there was also Minnie Mouse and Goofy, but I missed those (news article in Dutch).
Snow!
Snow!
Snow!
In the last two days we’ve received more snow than I’ve probably seen in the almost 5 years I’ve been here (and wow, next Monday is officially 5 years!) Yesterday wasn’t too bad – most people did not have to work. Indeed, Marco and I went outside yesterday and took some pictures.
snowfall yesterday. bus 22, with the oliebollen stand behind
But today would prove to be slightly more chaotic. Schiphol is currently trying to decide if they put out bedding for stranded travellers; about one third of the flights are cancelled and buses and trains aren’t running there. No trains to or from Amsterdam or Utrecht (in the heart of the Netherlands) at the moment. For a while the HTM buses here in The Hague stopped riding, but some lines are riding again.
I knew I had to go into work – my work computer was there! – but Marco was kind enough to walk me to my tram stop. It started snowing again in the late morning, so I stuck around until just after 1pm, and then went home to finish off my work there.
is a cafe across from the central library, near the city hall. Marco and I went there a few months back. At that time I snapped this photo:
As usual: I have a black coffee and Marco has a cappuccino
It was quite tasty, with an interesting concept (it is part of a furniture store). There is also upstairs seating.
But what I want to try the next time we go there? That would be the creme brûlée latte. It sounds delicious…
Life in the Hague 