Foto’s

Christmas trees (Or: Dancing lights in the Zeeheldenkwartier)

In the Zeeheldenkwartier (literally “Sea Heroes Quarter”) neighborhood they have set up a really nice looking Christmas tree. The color and pattern of the lights alternates often – some days it is all blue, some days it is blue and white, and some days it is red and white.

The tree stands in the middle of a larger rotunda with trams and cars whizzing past on either side. At least, during busier times of the day then what is captured above…

There are also a few stone sea turtles near the base of the tree which you can just barely make out. Here is a previous post I did about the turtles.

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

Time for snow (Or: Time to buy more sweaters?)

Today (December 3) is the Netherlands’ first day of snow. We won’t get a lot – somewhere between a good dusting to about an inch. It’ll probably disappear tomorrow as there is rain predicted tomorrow. Still, it does make for a white world, especially outside of the city. Although the snow didn’t start until after the sun went down so I don’t have any good photos this time around.

Here’s another photo of the Christmas decorations in De Passage lit up:

And here are a few articles I thought were interesting reads in the last week:

‘How do you reduce a national dish to a powder?’: the weird, secretive world of crisp flavours from theguardian.com. I thought it was a great read, although it doesn’t have that much to do with the Netherlands. But there is one reference: “Once the computers have done their job, the data makes its way to Wood. If she’s lucky, she can repurpose an existing flavour. In 2010, Lay’s launched Patatje Joppie in the Netherlands because of the nation’s love of Joppiesaus, a curried mayonnaise. Wood says the same flavour exists as Honey Mustard in other parts of the world. ‘We can play with the naming, because what you call something has a really big bearing on what people think it is.'” Admittedly, I have never tried that particularly flavor. It’s still going strong, though. Oh, and they say Germany loves the paprika (bell pepper) flavor. I am here to tell you that the Netherlands loves it just as much.

Another article I liked was over at Omroep West, although it’s in Dutch so Google Translate is your friend here. It talks about all of the weird, silly things that happened at voting locations in The Hague during the national elections a few weeks ago: Stempas van overleden vrouw en bijdehante fotograaf, gekke dingen tijdens verkiezingen in Den Haag, or, Voting ballot from deceased woman and wisecracking photographer, crazy occurrences during the elections in The Hague.

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

De Passage (Or: 2023’s Christmas tree)

The Christmas tree in De Passage has arrived! As always, its home is at the center of De Passage (the old part of the shopping area, at least) since that part forms a sort of Y. You can thus see the tree from everywhere in De Passage.

And here is a close up of the decorations for this year:

The tree will be lit on Thursday, November 30 at 18:00 (see the official website’s homepage).

Here are some other Christmas trees in De Passage in past years: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.

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

Blue skies (Or: Canal in The Hague)

While taking a walk earlier I decided to photograph one of the canals in The Hague’s city centre.

The best part of this photo? The lovely blue skies. But after I took this photo I turned right and all I saw was grey, depressing sky. It looked like it would rain any minute, although it thankfully did not.

Are you also looking forward to Halloween? Check out Festival of frights: 13 ways to celebrate Halloween in NL from dutchnews.nl. Slowly but surely, Halloween is becoming a “thing” here, every year just a bit more. You can also get some Halloween candy at Kelly’s expat store. I bought a few bags of candy corn for Marco and Roger already. It reminds me of the time that Marco and I were visiting my parents in the States and Mom bought a huge tub of candy corn. It disappeared so quickly you would think a ghost ate it all…

The Hague’s official website also publishes a list of events happening in The Hague for Halloween over at their website. You can even attend a Halloween party at the Grote Kerk (“Big Church”) on 28 October.

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

On Doritos and oliebollen (But: Not at the same time)

Here are two food related things I noticed in the last few weeks. Check out these bag of Doritos on sale at the local Albert Heijn supermarket:

In the US this flavor is known as “Cool ranch”. Frito-Lay thought that “Cool American” would be a better name for this flavor in Europe because ranch isn’t that well-known in this country. I don’t understand how “American” helps explain the flavor any better, but okay. I did end up buying a bag last week (the first bag in years) just to remember what the flavor was like. It isn’t one of my favorite chips but it was good enough.

And in other news… it is October! Which means the oliebollen stand (Wikipedia) magically appears on 1 October.

Admittedly they weren’t open on that day but they did open shortly thereafter. You know it is that time of the year when this stand appears!

Categories: Everyday purchases, The Hague | Tags: | Leave a comment

Photos of September days (Or: Summer is holding on)

I must admit we have had a lot of luck this summer with good weather, especially in the second half. (The first half could be eloquently described as rain, rain, rain.) With that being said, you can tell fall is approaching, with less sunlight and shorter days in general.

Here is a photo I took of Lange Voorhout, with the leaves on the ground:

And here is a photo from the Paleistuin (Palace gardens):

The building pictured is called Koninklijke Verzamelingen (Royal Collections). The website describes it as “the accumulation of objects and sources of information that members of the houses of Nassau and Orange-Nassau, and people around them, have gathered and kept over many centuries.” You get the idea.

One good thing about the approaching colder season? It’s much easier to sleep! Air conditioning in homes isn’t that common here so it can get warm at times. But now you can get onder the covers and make yourself nice and toasty.

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

Walking through the dunes (Or: Enjoying the sun in Kijkduin)

As mentioned in the last blog post, the weather was great all of last week. On Saturday Marco, Roger and I took advantage of this by visiting Kijkduin, a beach which you can reach with either bus 24 or tram 3. I am not a huge fan of buses so we went with tram 3 even though it was a longer walk.

Our first stop of the day was Wagamama. That is a British restaurant chain which focuses on Japanese-inspired Asian food. I didn’t take any photos of the food this time, but I did snag a photo of the artwork on the wall before we left:

Cute, huh?

After that we took a walk through the dunes. It was about a 45 minute walk. But considering it was a bit later in the day – after 6 – there weren’t too many crowds. Here is a photo I took of the pathway through the dunes, near the beginning of our walk:

I like how the path curved into nothingness. Pretty quickly more and more sand began to appear on the path and the concrete wasn’t always even, but it was a fun walk. We ended up at the tram stop for tram 12 (as was our plan) just in time to snag it before it started its route. The best part was by the time we got off that tram the sun had started to lower a bit and the sky subtly started to change colors as the evening set in.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: | Leave a comment

Standing watch (Or: Nijntje in De Passage)

The newest guest in De Passage shopping area is Nijntje:

Nijntje is short in Dutch for Konijntje or “little rabbit”. Outside of the Netherlands you probably know her better as Miffy (Wikipedia). I took this picture on the first day, but if you walk past now you’ll see a sign that says if you take a photo with her and place it on social media you can win a package of Nijntje gifts worth around 150 euros. See also Instagram.

And, just as randomly, here is a photo of the lovely ramen soup I enjoyed earlier in August at Momiji Ramen:

This ramen featured a lovely spicy broth and minced meat. Delicious.

This should be interesting (although they don’t have any details yet): Disney to collaborate with Rijksmuseum to celebrate its 100th anniversary from nltimes.nl

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

A grey, rainy day (Or: Walking through The Hague)

On Sunday I went for a walk in the city centre, heading towards The Hague Centraal train station. Here are some of the photos that I took on that rainy, dreary day:

On Sunday there were flags honoring Ukraine’s Independence Day. You can see what flags were raised (or will be raised) between the years 2019-2023 by visiting denhaag.raadsinformatie.nl — click the second PDF at the bottom of the page.

The ever colorful gates of the Dutch Ministry of Finance, easy to spot if you visit in the weekend when the building is closed. (And no picture taken in The Netherlands is complete without getting at least one bicycle in the photo.)

And here is a good look at the dark and menacing sky. You can just see the NS logo (and thus The Hague Centraal station) on the left between the two flags.

After checking the weather for tomorrow’s commute, I have decided I will post this and go grab my umbrella so I don’t forget it. Sheesh!

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

Cotton candy ice cream burrito (Or: You heard me right)

Today was the last day of the Rrrollend food truck festival in The Hague. Marco and I went with his mother. Here is the craziest thing Marco spotted, although we weren’t crazy enough to try it ourselves:

That is a cotton candy and ice cream dessert burrito. My teeth hurt just thinking about it!

Marco’s mom had a meat pie while Marco had a katsu sando. That’s a Japanese sandwich with fried pork cutlets placed between white bread. You can also add lettuce and other condiments. Marco added pineapple reaper, a pretty spicy hot sauce. An earlier post I wrote about a restaurant called Umami has a photo of a katsu sando (see the last image in the post). And at Rrrollend I had a falafel pita. No photo though. It was messy but delicious.

Mom/Dad: We saw a stand selling Philly cheese steaks and we thought of you (I think that is what you guys bought at Smorgasburg).

After Rrrollend we went to the nearby Plein for another drink. I had a frozen cappuccino:

It was really good. Or as I told Marco and his mom: the drink was verdomde lekker! or stupidly tasty. It being served in a pretty glass helps as well of course.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: | Leave a comment

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.