Foto’s

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.

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

Laziness (Or: Pigeons who refuse to move)

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Niki

A few days ago I had to make a trip to Albert Heijn to get some groceries. On the way there I saw a flock of pigeons just lounging around listlessly. One of them was even lying down, not caring at all that people were walking only a few feet away from it.

The birds have a pretty good life in this city. Plenty of food and not many predators. We also have a lot of seagulls that hang around in The Hague. At first I thought they come over from the nearby beach in Scheveningen but they seem to hang around in The Hague year-round. I once saw 20-30 seagulls screeching loudly at some point across the street and dive bombing the area, only to realize after a few seconds that some woman had dumped a lot of old stale bread over the railing down to the street below. That bread was completely gone, with the exception of crumbs, in less than 30 seconds.

Of course, on the way back, the same pigeon pictured above was there, still not moving…

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

Advertisements and drawings (Or: McDonald’s and Starbucks)

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Niki

Yesterday Marco and I took a bus from Central Station in The Hague to Wassenaar, a nearby suburb of The Hague, for the birthday party of a friend’s kid. While we were waiting at the bus platform I decided to take a picture of a McDonald’s advertisement that seems to have sprung up everywhere in the last few days. (In actuality, most advertising spaces seem to go to the same advertisement, and the advertisements change every week. So you are usually bombarded by the same advertisement over and over.)

It’s a picture of a sundae (available in chocolate or caramel) with the tagline “ook lekker op Mondae”. Also tasty on Monday. While most of the tagline is in Dutch, they did not change the name of the day from the English Monday to the Dutch maandag for the joke, as that would kill the joke a bit.

Of course we did not stop at McDonald’s before going to Wassenaar, but we did stop at Starbucks in Central Station and split a vanilla latte. Yum. I can still vividly remember how excited Marco was when the first Starbucks arrived in Schiphol airport. Of course that worked well for him because he was constantly visiting America for the yearly Wrestlemania trip or the other 3-4 trips to see me.

It wasn’t much longer after that (a year or so) before the Starbucks opened in The Hague in the Central Station. But then it wasn’t as special, because you could just walk there to get a good coffee. You no longer needed to hop on a plane. ;p

Categories: Everyday purchases, The Hague | Tags: Advertisements, McDonald's, Starbucks | Leave a comment

Wet newspapers (Or: Scenes from Delft)

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Niki

Here are a few random pictures that I took while my family and I were walking through Delft on the way to the churches. I just could not pass up the lonely looking newspaper stuck in the canal…

Nearby was a residence overlooking the water:

It was a nice day to walk through Delft – still jacket weather, but warm enough. Relaxing.

Categories: Delft | Tags: Canals | Leave a comment

Fountains (Or: A lovely day in Scheveningen)

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Niki

Here’s a picture from a month or two ago when Marco, Roger and I went to Rodizio in Scheveningen – a city name which I still cannot spell for the life of me.

I do remember that the huge building on the left is a casino, and is also shaped like a cruise ship (being that it is right next to the beach). Unfortunately the weather is a bit colder now, so the beach isn’t as nice as it was over the summer.

Categories: Scheveningen | Tags: Beach | 1 Comment

Blue (Or: Across from Noordeinde Palace)

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Niki

Here’s some pictures of The Hague that I took over the last few weeks. The first one is a building across from the Noordeinde Palace, one of the three palaces for the royal family. Of course, I mostly took the picture because the window covers were a lovely shade of blue!

I also ended up taking a picture of a canal, though I forget where it was at or where I was going at the time. The flowers dominate the photograph, almost hiding the water completely:

Of course, as I already mentioned this is from a few weeks ago, before the weather went all cold and rainy!

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Flowers, Tourist attraction | Leave a comment

Parades (Or: Veteran’s Day in The Hague)

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Niki

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day in the Netherlands. Marco and I went and checked out the local parade after hearing dozens of helicopters flying over on their way to Maliveld (where they had a lot of activities going on – we ended up not going there).

‘Veteranen, ingezet in dienst van de vrede’ – veterans deployed in the service of peace

People standing on benches trying to get a better view (it’s normally a well populated bus stop)

Categories: Holidays, News, The Hague | 3 Comments

Shopping Night (Or: Shop ’til you drop in The Hague)

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Niki

Last night Marco and I went to Shopping Night in the Hague downtown area. The shops are usually open late until 9PM on Thurday nights in this part of The Hague. But for this special event, the shops were open until midnight. In addition, some stores were offering discounts which got higher each hour that passed, with the steepest discounts between 11PM and midnight.

Though Marco and I just went for the experience and the fresh air – we didn’t end up buying anything in the end.

The front page of the website says:

Ik had een favoriet jasje, knalkleuren en lekker gek, totdat ik op de tv zag dat een minister hetzelfde jasje droeg…

I had a favorite jacket, bright colors and quirky, until I saw on the tv that government official wore the same jacket…

crowds gathering in the main shopping areas

“Bus stop Glam bus” – free restyling. If you put your in the list for a certain time and waited, you could get a free restyling. Not sure what company was offering it.

just a pretty picture as night falls

In the main walking area, they set up a fashion stage. Models would come out and display the latest fashions that were available for purchase.

Shop ’til you drop!

Categories: Shopping, The Hague | Leave a comment