As I mentioned earlier in the week, Dr. Anton Philipszaal is almost completely erased. A few days ago they were knocking down the iconic red roof. And now…
It is crazy how fast it goes. Only the black windows on the left side of the building are left.
I realized this afternoon that it was the 3rd anniversary of my arriving in the Netherlands (18 December).
2012 post || 2013 post || 2014 post (n/a)
Three years already! Time has flown by. And each year seems warmer then the next. Silly global warming…
Here are some random Christmas photos. A stand for oliebollen:
Christmas lights at Bijenkorf, an upper end department store, in The Hague Centrum (see also last year’s post):
Christmas lights at The Hague, Spui (Centrum), by the movie theatre, across from V&D:
Christmas lights at Bijenkorf in Amsterdam:
Happy Friday, all!
This afternoon I was out and about in the Centrum I noticed that the tearing down of Dr. Anton Philipszaal (a concert hall and theatre) was beginning in earnest. They have begun to tear down the red part of the roof:
The hall was first built in 1987 and is slated to be replaced in 2019 with a new culture center. Until then the theatre has moved to a temporary location on the Scheveningen beach, Zuidstrandtheatre.
And of course you have the tram work in the foreground. That project started in April of last year and will hopefully be done this summer. Once done the newer trams should be able to ride over the rails.
A news story from last week: thousands of unread mail from the 17th century were found recently in The Hague, some letters still unopened and unread. (Dutch news link || English news link). A museum in The Hague has had them since 1926 but they have only recently been studied.
Photograph: Hague Museum for Communication
With letters from aristocrats, spies, merchants and more, the collection is a wonderful look at the Netherlands as it existed back in the 17th century. Most news articles report about a letter which was delivered to a man and returned unopened – likely he suspected that it contained news that he was the father of an unwanted child.
It’ll be interesting to see if and when the letters would be digitized – there are bound to be many interesting reads. Also interesting: the 600 pieces that are still sealed can be read without opening them at all – that’s modern day technology for you!
Some time ago I was walking past the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. As you might be able to guess from the name, it’s an art museum. I’ve only been inside once so far, to see a Delfts blauw exhibit. That is blue and white pottery made in the Delft area since the 16th century.
Pretty, huh?
The weather is turning colder this week. About 50 degrees Fahrenheit, when it should be closer to 60 for this time of year. It’s hard to believe it will be Christmas in a few months!
As mentioned in a previous blog post, Marco and I visited Amersfoort for our second anniversary. I took some photos of the Eemplein, a shopping area not far from our hotel.
The inside of the KAdECafé, a cafe attached to an art hall.
You can read more about the KAdECafé here.
A strange looking building not far from the plein, deliberately painted to look as if it had recently survived a fire. At least that is what I guess…
There is also a Burger King right by the hotel we stayed at. The crazy thing was they had free refills, which mirrors the American system — you order a drink and are given the appropriate size cup to go with it. Then you can dispense the drink yourself (with the soda fountain shown here).
Let’s just say “free refills” are an all but unheard of concept here in the Netherlands. The only exceptions I’ve seen are at some of the buffets.
Only a few more days until a nice, relaxing weekend!
Last Sunday Marco and I came across the Pro Freestyle event being held at the Spuiplein.
Performing tricks for the crowd
The three day event attracted about 35,000 visitors and featured freestyle BMX, skateboarding and more.
The silhouette of a biker
Once you’re done with your run you have to carry your bike up the stairs and do it all over again. Bonus: the awesome sky.
I decided it might be fun to show off some of my more random photos that didn’t end up getting their own blog post.
By the tram stop – an advertisement for Disney’s Descendants
What caught my eye was the use of the shadow on the ground to “extend” the advertisement onto the ground.
Make & Bake cookie jars at Hema
Anyone want to bake some cookies? The jar includes all of the ingredients you need, apparently.
Flowers next to Buitenhof
Of course that photo was from a month or two ago – all it has done in the last few weeks is rain, rain, rain.
Kurhaus (a hotel) in Scheveningen, on the night of the Fireworks Festival
Until next time!
I seem to be on tram kick lately. Let’s see, some incidents this week:
1. There’s a place in The Hague where you have a pole right next to the tram rails. That is not a problem at all for the tram – obviously the distance was factored in. However, what do Dutch like to do when they see a pole?
You guessed it. Place a bike against it. Or two actually in this case. The tram driver drives really slowly, really carefully, but manages to hit the bike. So that means she has to get up and open the door just to move the bike. (Note: some other guy on his bike riding past got off his bike just to help her move them.)
2. This afternoon a biker wanted to turn right. No problem – the tram also had a curve where it turned right as well. Except there isn’t much space at the side of the road in the curve, and you quickly run into a stack of bikes on the sidewalk. Not much room to manuever. So of course the tram passes the biker and turns right, but the biker keeps going in the turn as well, causing the tram to have to slow down to almost a complete stop. (Last I saw the guy gave up and biked into what little space there was on the sidewalk to get out of the way.)
3. But the craziest – this morning. I was in the tram heading to work and there was a garbage truck on the right side of the road. The tram was again in a turn, this time heading left. I was in the last compartment and had a great view of the garbage truck. I remember thinking “Wow, he’s really close by. But as usual there won’t be an issue.” After the garbage truck passes out of view I hear a loud screeeeeech as the garbage truck’s side mirror slashes against the body of the tram – and then a loud thud as the mirror (I presume) falls to the ground. Eep. The tram didn’t stop, either.
Another story, not quite tram-less:
Last Friday Marco, Roger and I went to the fireworks festival in Scheveningen. It happens over two weekends – Friday and Saturday and Friday and Saturday of the following weekend – and you always have two countries every night “competing” for who has the best fireworks. I left competing in quotes because I have never seen the results of the competition. The night we went was Italy and then The Netherlands.
Waiting on the boulevard for the Italian fireworks to start. You can see the boats with the fireworks in the distance on the water.
At first I thought the Italian fireworks were better… until I saw the Dutch finale! Quite nice. But then we had a lot of trouble getting home. Of course it was a mad house at the tram stop. Waves upon waves of people pushing trying to get into any available tram, and we were too far down the tram stop to get into a tram (three trams went by and still nothing by us, for instance). Eventually we got into bus 23 which at best would take us to the Laan van Nieuw-Oost Indie stop. Not too bad, but still a hike to get back home. The bus was very crowded, though.
Of course, things aren’t that easy. Marco says he now knows why they put a limit on the amount of people allowed in a bus – because ours got a flat tire not too long into the ride. Eek. Luckily this was somewhere near Madurodam’s stop so we were able to hitch a ride on tram 9. There was a tiny, tiny bit of space for us to jump on in the middle of the tram. Of course some guy took offense to me wanting to hold on to the bars in front of the doors (he was standing on the steps by the doors) and so he kept squashing my hand with his butt. My hand was so red afterwards! You’d think he’d realize the presence of a foreign object and not be so rude, but oh well… I chose to keep my mouth shut, so I’m also to blame.
And right now it’s pouring. Ugh. Byebye what little summer we had. 🙂
Wow… I believe that I have angered the rain Gods with that comment. Right after typing it the sky just turned a sickly bright orange. Scary…
Quick. Name one thing you do NOT mess with in the Netherlands.
…if you guessed football you would be correct.
In most if not all European countries, football is the sport. Fans eat, sleep and breathe football. Sometimes viewing multiple games on multiple devices (television, smart phone, tablet…) at the same time. It is a way of life.
Unfortunately you can expect issues if you try to get in the way of that. Even if you’re the police. The police have been striking at various times over the least few months. I wrote about it back in May when 1,500 police officers protested around the Binnenhof. Of course it makes sense – they just want better pay. It’s not that much different from the farmers striking in Belgium and France by driving really slow on highways and obstructing traffic.
But, again… it’s football. You just do not mess with football, people. Someone forgot to tell the police that. Most of the opening games for the Eredivisie are postponed due to police planning to strike during the scheduled game times – police actions which threaten not just ADO Den Haag’s game but also other games across the country this weekend. (Note: Dutch police threatened to strike during the opening days of the Tour de France in Utrecht, but that did not go through.)
Now ADO fans have a plan of their own. ‘Wij geen wedstrijd, hun geen staking‘ which translates to “No game for us? No strike for them.” The plan is to have as many people as possible meet at the Plein in The Hague at the scheduled time of the game. A large group of people would require a similarly large police presence, which means that at least some of the police cannot strike during their planned strike time. It is an interesting tactic if you think about it!
From Volkskrant.nl (linked above, Dutch article)
Life in the Hague 