Foto’s

The changing of the bikes (Or: Relocation)

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Niki

It seems that The Hague has been working on the areas where people park their bikes. A lot of places had a sign on them (example below) stating that bikes could only be parked here until Tuesday, February 18. Any bikes left there after that time would be removed. You could then go to the central bike storage in the city and pay a fee to get it back – 25 euros! link in Dutch.

It seems that – according to some Dutch articles – that the bike stands are being permanently removed as they can cause damage to the bike when it is knocked over. Their solution?

Chalk lines showing you where to park your bike. Not the most elegant solution, of course. We came back a few hours later after taking this second photo and the entire space was full, and people also placed their bikes against the building just like before – making it even more crowded for pedestrians to pass.

Weird.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Bikes | Leave a comment

More and more crowded (Or: Construction in The Hague Centrum)

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Niki

Do you know what ‘construction’ is in Dutch? If you’re like me you might have said constructie (a lot of Dutch words seem to start the same and end with -ie) but alas, it is not. It’s verbouwing. Bouwen is ‘to build’ and the prefix ver ends up on a lot of Dutch words.

The Hague’s centrum area is a bit insane at the moment. Not only to you have them working on the Nieuwe Passage (a passage which links two main streets), and Marks & Spencer being built, you now have them tearing up the entire middle of the street, forcing voetgangers (pedestrians) to the left and fietsers (bicyclists) to the right. Crazy.

It’s getting to the point where I can’t quite remember what this place looked like when I was here on vacation a few years back, before any of this construction started!

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Centrum | Leave a comment

Almost done (Or: Nieuwe Haagse Passage)

Posted on February 1, 2014 by Niki

The new passageway (from Grote Markt to another shopping street) is making progress. You can see an artist’s drawing of what it will look like when finished.

And another image:

In other news, Marks & Spencer (a British retail store) will be finished on February 19. It’s also in the centrum of The Hague.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: De Passage | 1 Comment

More than meets the eye (Or: Shop graffiti in The Hague)

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Niki

A few days ago Marco and I were walking through The Hague and I spotted this unusual graffiti on a shop barricade:

At first glance it didn’t look that unusual (not that most of the graffiti here can be considered ‘normal’) – but it quickly went from ‘pretty colors’ to ‘Hmmm. What am I looking at again?’

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Graffiti | Leave a comment

Anniversaries (Or: Two years of blogging)

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Niki

A few days ago WordPress reminded me that it had been two years since I registered with the site. Two years! Of course most of the first year was still spent in America, as I didn’t move to the Netherlands until 11 months later.

Here are some of the highlights about what I blogged about that first month:

Sand sculptures in The Hague
A look at Amsterdam Public Library
A post about Amsterdam, including my best Dutch photo ever taken (in my opinion)
The time I found a replica statue of William the Silent at Rutgers University (New Jersey)
Or the police escort of Greek voetbal fans – with police in riot gear
Finally: the canals of Delft

Categories: Foto's | Tags: Anniversaries | Leave a comment

Christmas Trees (Or: It’s Christmas eve!)

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Niki

Over the last week or so I’ve seen a lot of Christmas trees around The Hague. One tree that I was not expecting to see was in De Passage. It’s not the best picture but it’s not a small tree either! (The black wall in the background is the construction area before the Apple store).

This was unexpected because of the agreement between a not-yet-opened Apple store and De Passage. In the contract between Apple and the shopping area, it was stipulated that there would be no more Christmas tree in the center as it would block the view of the storefront. Of course, people were quite annoyed by this. But Marco and I found out a few days ago that the tree was back! Only for this year, as a consolation because the Apple store isn’t yet open.

I also found a smaller Christmas tree at Central Station in The Hague:

Good news for Marco – the rest of his Christmas presents just arrived (via Amazon UK/PostNL) so he will have a present filled Christmas this year! He was even nice and went downstairs to get the package from the mailman. Nothing like waiting until the afternoon of Christmas Eve, but I ordered things pretty late this year.

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: Apple, Christmas, De Passage | Leave a comment

Bijenkorf (Or: Christmas time in The Hague)

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Niki

Here are the Christmas lights that Bijenkorf put up a week or two ago:

The decorations are not actually strands of individual lights, but rather sections of net which descend down the entire length of the windows and have the lights woven into them.

In other news, I officially got the news last night that I passed all four sections of B1, so it is on to B2! There are two sections starting next month, both Tuesday/Thursday nights. One starts the 14th and one starts the 21st. The class will be done by the end of June. That seems like a far away date right now… but it is really not.

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

Dutch homes (Or: Example of a free standing house)

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Niki

Last week was a trip to a garden center at the outskirts of The Hague (Tuincentrum Overvecht). Mostly to look at random Christmas items they had on sale. The “warehouse” feel of the place reminded me a lot of some American stores like K-mart which have garden centers…

On the way, we spotted a Dutch home which looked pretty enough to photograph. Considering I live in the center of The Hague, it’s sometimes weird to get this far out of the city and see what non-apartment living looks like. It’s about 7km distance from the city center.

It could pass for an American home — only the roof is made with different material.

Pretty.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Dutch language | Leave a comment

Odd Sculpture (Or: A different library)

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Niki

A few days ago I took a walk to a different library in The Hague — Transvaalkwartier library in Hobbemaplein. I needed to check out a audio book (luisterboek) that was not available in the Central Library. It was recommended to me by a friend. Of course, I downloaded the tracks onto my computer but still need to put them into iTunes and transfer them to my iPhone. I always need to take that extra step due to not having a CD drive in my netbook. So I can’t tell you how interesting the story is quite yet.

But on the way there I did come across an odd looking sculpture. I am not quite sure what the meaning is behind it but it was colorful enough.

Things have been going well since my last blog post. It’s only a few more weeks until Marco and I’s honeymoon (yay) and it is almost time to start planning holiday events and dinners. And of course we have to figure out when we are going to watch the new Thor movie coming out (cool), although I am definitely more excited for the next Hobbit movie in December.

I enjoyed my week off school (due to herfstvakantie/fall vacation) but tomorrow it is back to a normal week. The best part about not having classes was not having to quickly make dinner and then rush off. But now it’s back to the grind, it seems! Just kidding.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Art, Sculptures | Leave a comment

Graffiti (Or: Futurama in The Hague)

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Niki

Futurama is an American animated TV show which also appears on Comedy Central in the Netherlands (and Pirate Bay, but I digress…). Someone in The Hague is apparently a big fan of Bender, a robot character on the show.

That’s Bender on the right, holding a TV remote saying his trademark phrase: “Kiss my shiny metal …”, with the … included. I’m not sure who the other characters are, but they are not from the same TV show.