Foto’s

Coca-cola truck (Or: Christmas time in The Hague)

A few days ago a coworker of mine showed me a few pictures she had taken around The Hague. As she comes from a warmer climate, she loves to see how Christmas is celebrated here — not that The Hague is that cold. Her favourite pastime seems to be visiting Christmas markets, which is pretty cool.

The first picture she took was of the holidays Coca-cola truck in the city centre:

coca-cola-christmas-trunk-in-the-hague-2016

And the other one she took was an awesome picture of the holiday lights at the Plein. I just love the hazy moon:

plein-in-the-hague-christmas-2016

In the middle, to the left of the Christmas tree, you can just make out the statue of Willem the Silent, which I previously blogged about.

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: , | Leave a comment

An illusionary pizza (Or: Marco’s latest creation)

Marco made some pizza last night:

slice-of-%22dessert-pizza%22

But this pizza wasn’t what it seemed. This pizza is actually a dessert! The pizza dough is white cake, while the cheese is a yellow cream (it was already yellow, but yellow food dye was added to make it an even brighter yellow). The pepperoni is actually strawberries, though in this case it was preserved strawberries out of a can because they tend to be darker in color. There is a bit of pineapple to look like onions, as well as a bit of mandarin to look like orange peppers. The “spices” on top of the cheese is actually shaved chocolate.

a-look-at-marcos-%22dessert-pizza%22

I never would have thought pizza would go so well with coffee! Here’s a look at his other creation, a dessert “hamburger and fries”.

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Nijntje (Or: Seen at C&A?)

Nijntje (known as Miffy in English) is a small white rabbit who stars in a series of Dutch picture books drawn and written by Dick Bruna. Marco and I were walking past C&A, a clothing store, and noticed the following advertisement:

nijntje-by-ca

Apparently the exclusive rights to the Nijntje clothing line has moved from V&D (a store which closed early this year) to C&A – read more at this article in Dutch.

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Aim Aroy (Or: Thai restaurant in Tilburg)

Last Saturday (Nov 19), Marco, Roger and I went to a rock concert in Tilburg. We saw two bands – Killswitch Engage and Bullet for My Valentine. It was a lot of fun, even if Tilburg really is not that close by. It is about an hour to an hour and a half depending on what train you can get. Luckily it was on a Saturday night, since we got home closer to 1:30AM.

But before we went there, we stopped by a small Thai restaurant for dinner. We had a 4:30PM reservation so we wouldn’t be late to the arena, but that meant we were the first ones there – even before the cook! We could see someone inside, so we decided to wait outside and see what happened. Long story short, they soon took pity on us and let us in.

This is my blog, so I can decide to start with the dessert picture. Check this one out!

spekkook-and-coffee-by-aim-aroy-tilburg

Spekkoek and coffee

If you don’t know what spekkoek is, check out the Wikipedia article.

Although it definitely was not the best lighting, I took a picture of the darkening sky from inside the restaurant:

a-look-at-the-sky-outside-aim-aroy-tilburg

The decorations here are just a silhouette against the sky.

decorations-at-aim-aroy-tilburg

This was also a nice decoration, in the corner of the restaurant.

spring-rolls-and-sate-at-aim-aroy-tilburg

Appetizers to share – spring rolls and Thai (chicken) sate

chicken-and-veggies-in-a-green-curry-aim-aroy-tilburg

A look at my food – chicken and veggies in a green curry, with a side of white rice.

My meal was a bit spicier than I expected, but Marco offered to finish off the spiciest part, the soup!

If you’re in the neighbourhood and you like Thai food, I do recommend checking this one out. It’s a bit small, though, so reserve in advance. They have a lot of takeout traffic as well.

And: good dinner choice, Roger!

Categories: Food, Tilburg | 2 Comments

Bijenkorf (Or: A look at Bijenkorf’s 2016 Christmas selection)

I am officially posting on my brand new computer! I picked it up on Wednesday night and it looks gorgeous. I have missed being able to easily make blog posts, and now it is even easier – turn on Bluetooth between my iPhone and MacBook, and I can transfer photos without any extra cables! Of course, the move to a Mac has been an interesting one, but that’s what I have Siri for, right? At least she knows where to find various settings…

(Speaking of which, it was very disconcerting to hear a male Siri! That was one of the first things I switched…)

I recently went into Bijenkorf (rather than just staring at their pretty Christmas trees outside) to have a look at their holiday section.

christmas-decorations-at-bijenkorf-2016

Very contemplative…

Below is a look at some of the Christmas trees on offer. This year (maybe for the first time since I moved here?, they did not have the large Christmas tree near the front of the store). In its place was a Piet hanging from the ceiling. I was not able to get a picture of it, unfortunately.

party-tree-at-bijenkorf-2016

Say hello to the party tree!

christmas-tree-at-bijenkorf-2016

Bijenkorf does like to colour-coordinate their Christmas trees!

christmas-tree-2-at-bijenkorf-2016

A bit too pastel for my tastes, but I can see how others would like it.

christmas-items-at-bijenkorf-2016

Christmas items for purchase at Bijenkorf, The Hague

Until next time!

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: , | 1 Comment

Holidays at the Grote Markt (Or: Colorful decorations)

Last week I took some photos of the Christmas trees by the Bijenkorf (a department store). This week I was able to take a few photos of the lights along the Grote Markt street:

christmas-lights-at-bijenkorf-the-hague-2016

The new tear-shaped lights the city put in earlier this year look really nice!

Lights by the entrance:

christmas-lights-at-bijenkorf-entrance-the-hague-2016

And a look at the lights in the other direction, towards the movie theater and Primark:

christmas-lights-at-the-grote-markt-the-hague-2016

Oh, and today a coworker brought in 12 oliebollen (sorta doughnut-y pastry that is usually made with raisins inside and covered in powdered sugar). They started selling those on November 1st… It is always something to look forward to!

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Here we go (Or: Christmas at Bijenkorf)

Last week Bijenkorf (an upscale department store) put up their Christmas decorations. See for yourself:

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They also put the lights up outside of the building (here is a photo from 2013).

In other news – I finally ordered a new computer! As you can see from this photo of a library book, I am switching from PC to Mac.

"Van PC naar Mac" library book
If you ignore that one semester in college using a Mac and QuarkXPress for a student job, it will be my first time using a Mac. And yes, it might be geeky but the book has been helpful explaining the differences in keys and in the dock at the bottom of the screen where all the program icons can be found.

Although I have a few more weeks to wait, the computer can’t come soon enough. I wanted to write this blog post on my netbook, but Chrome errored when I tried to open it. I restarted my computer but it has been stuck on a blue screen which says “getting Windows ready – don’t turn off your computer”. For a half hour. Heh…

Update: it came back after 45 minutes, although Chrome is still erroring. Oh well! That is a problem for another day.

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As we enter autumn (Or: Stroopwafel cake)

Over the weekend Roger made stroopwafel cake. Yum!

stroopwafel-cake

Here’s a closeup of one of the slices:

piece-of-stroopwafel-cake

And, for randomness, here is a look at the fall mural for Eat Company, drawn by Sophia den Breems:

eat-company-the-hague-fall-2016-mural

Spring 2016 mural || Summer 2016 mural

Categories: Food, The Hague | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

3rd wedding anniversary (Or: A stay at nhow Rotterdam hotel)

Last week Marco and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary at the nhow hotel in Rotterdam (Dutch | English). The hotel was designed by Rem Koolhaas and currently holds the title of the largest building in the Netherlands (at 160,000 square meters).

nhow-hotel-rotterdam-and-erasmus-bridge

Our room ended up being in the lower left building, in the upper left corner on the 23rd floor.

Where we were going and where we were staying was a surprise on my part – Marco only knew that it was a city in the Netherlands and we would be spending one night in a hotel.

rotterdam-centraal

Rotterdam Centraal, the train station. We ended up taking the new metro line E from Den Haag Centraal to Rotterdam Centraal, but that is for another blog post. 🙂

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A Wednesday outing (Or: Cocktails by Milu)

Last week I went out with my colleagues for Wednesday night €5 cocktails at Milu (Dutch | English). It’s a restaurant close to the Grote Kerk (a well-known church in the center of The Hague).

First drink - a spicy mango martini, chosen in honor of Marco, who loves mango stuff ;)

First drink – a spicy mango martini, chosen in honor of Marco, who loves mango stuff 😉

Actually Milu was where Marco and I had our wedding reception (back when it was known as “Het Wapon”). We hadn’t been back since it closed and this one came in, so it was admittedly weird to walk back inside and at some point to go upstairs (both the bathrooms and the festival room are there).

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Categories: The Hague | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

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