The Hague

Christmas trees (Or: Another weekend of too many shoppers)

Posted on December 13, 2020 by Niki

Check out this Christmas tree which I saw by the Plein in The Hague:

Christmas tree near the statue of Willem de Oranje

It’s a cute Christmas tree, but I will admit it looks like someone had a bit too much fun with strips of toilet paper at the bottom. I assume it is actually tinsel, though.

I saw an even more creative Christmas tree over on the r/thenetherlands Reddit page:

Alternatieve kerstboom op Onze Lieve Vrouweplein in Maastricht. from thenetherlands

(Alternative Christmas tree in Maastricht at the “Our Lady plaza”.) Those are café/restaurant chairs. Since the cafés and restaurants are only open for takeout or delivery these days, why not re-use them (or store them) as a Christmas tree? The best part: In the back on the left of the photo you see the hint of another Christmas tree.

The last few days have seen the number of coronavirus cases skyrocket. We’re now back to around 10,000 cases a day. There was an emergency meeting of the safety regions and the government today, with a few additional meetings tomorrow. It is unclear if they will hold a press conference this coming Tuesday or if they will hold it tomorrow, one day earlier than they usually would (press conferences generally happen on Tuesdays).

There are a few measures that could be taken:

  • closure of ‘through’ or ‘transfer’ locations where a lot of people meet, for example libraries, movie theatres, zoos, cinemas, etc.
  • closure of all not-essential stores (everything except supermarkets, pharmacies, etc.)
  • closing of schools

Of these I think either the first two are more likely. Interestingly the Netherlands actually did not close essential stores during the first wave back in March / April. It was always the store’s choice to close or not. However, Germany has also announced a hard lockdown that will last through 10 January so some are speculating that German tourists will travel across the border to do their Christmas shopping here unless we also go into a hard lockdown as well.

New coronavirus infections near 10,000 as ministers discuss new measures from dutchnews.nl

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A new addition in Grote Markt (Or: Toilets)

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Niki

Kudos to The Hague for putting temporary public toilets on the Grote Markt. The most shocking of all: I didn’t see any signs that you had to pay, which would be quite normal in the Netherlands. Generally the only free bathrooms are found in restaurants or cafés.

Normally these barriers would be used for the Royal Christmas Fair. However, the fair was cancelled so the barriers could be put to a different use. And public toilets are very important right now. At the moment restaurants and cafés are only allowed to be open for takeout or delivery, so there not many public toilets available to shoppers at the moment.

I also saw some toilets by the plaza outside the Tweede Kamer parliamentary building, so it is not just on the Grote Markt. (Oh, and for American readers: yes, that’s TJ Maxx in the background. However in Europe the company goes by the name TK Maxx.)

Above is a tweet from the Scheveningen police, wishing everyone a nice Sinterklaas evening. Everyone opens their presents from Sinterklaas on the evening of December 5, aka last night.

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Holiday lights (Or: Decorations by the Haagsche Bluf)

Posted on December 4, 2020 by Niki

I write about the Haagsche Bluf sometimes (denhaag.com, in English). It is basically a small shopping area within a larger shopping area. The entrances are obvious but it is still easy to miss if you don’t know what you are looking for. I was out for a quick walk this morning when I spotted the holiday decorations by one of the entrances:

I also spotted a Christmas tree in the distance, via another entrance, but I don’t have pictures of that one. (Another tip: I saw workers wrapping Christmas lights around a large Christmas tree just outside of the restaurant/hotel ‘t Goude Hooft.)

In other news: Piccolo’s zorgen voor ‘gastveiligheid’ in Haagse binnenstad from omroepeest.nl in Dutch. In general terms, The Hague has hired “guides” to help with the expected crowds in The Hague’s city centre. I had to ask Marco for more information about what a “piccolo” was in this context. He said it was like a hotel bellhop who assists you with anything you might need. And indeed, they do look like bellhops.

The interesting thing is that their job is to be positive. If you are wearing a mask, they will thank you for it. If you are keeping one and a half meters distance, they will thank you for it. They will also help you if you need directions (for instance if you need to know where the closest public bathroom is) or similar.

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Bijenkorf holiday windows (Or: 2020 edition)

Posted on December 2, 2020 by Niki

Here are some of the holiday windows Bijenkorf (a high-end retail store) here in The Hague. Bijenkorf is Dutch for beehive.

This one is Sinterklaas themed (you can see the music in backend and his staff in front of the music sheet). The white letters that are almost impossible to see say Muziek dat verbindt – the music that brings us together.
The mannequin was also slowly rotating. The white letters say Feest van samenzijn – Feast of being together (or a similar translation).
Continue reading →
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Just lights and a sign (Or: No Royal Christmas Fair this year)

Posted on November 28, 2020 by Niki

A few days ago I walked past the Lange Voorhout, a street with a rich history that spans back to the 12th and 13th centuries (Wikipedia). It is also home to the Royal Christmas Fair and one of the homes of the Rrrollend food festival (the other being Malieveld).

Of course there is no Royal Christmas Fair this year. But there are a few signs out as you can see above. The city also added the usual white Christmas lights to give it a holiday feel. (You can just barely see the light strings in the trees on the left of the photo.)

Balloons as an alternative to fireworks: ‘Still nice to pop’ from news1.com. (Or try the Dutch version of this article over at rtlneiuws.nl.)

1987 Ferrari pulled from Amsterdam canal to appear in Netflix production from nltimes.nl. But it is all just for show – the article says it will be scrapped afterwards.

And it is unfortunately still busy today due to Black Friday shopping (where deals seem to last all weekend): Drukte in winkelstraten, in meerdere steden winkels eerder dicht from nos.nl. It is busy in the shopping streets, with many cities closing stores early, around 16:00, give or take. The Hague sent out a tweet at 12:30 today saying it was too busy in the city centre and people should stay away, but for the moments stores in The Hague are closing at their normal times.

(a pretty picture of Bijenkorf’s winter decorations…)
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Black Friday in The Netherlands (Or: Early morning lines)

Posted on November 27, 2020 by Niki

Black Friday has become popular in the last 5 years in this country. I know it doesn’t make much sense, but who doesn’t love a good deal? (Although whether something is a good deal is questionable at times.) But with corona this year, it was a bit weird to see the city centre so busy.

Here was the line for Uniqlo, a recently opened Japanese clothing store:

This photo was taken just before 10:00, so right before the store opened. I was lucky that I was just passing through and could use the side streets to avoid this area. When I passed the edge of the city centre later in the afternoon it was almost impossible to see through the mass of people shopping here at Grote Marktstraat (denhaag.com, English site). Are the discounts really that important?

Most NL residents don’t care about Black Friday from nltimes.nl. You could have fooled me.

Still, other cities had it much worse: Burgemeester Aboutaleb sluit winkels in centrum Rotterdam om ‘dramatische drukte‘ from nos.nl. The mayor of Rotterdam (Aboutaleb) closed all stores in the center of Rotterdam because of the ‘massive crowds’. He closed them at 19:10, about 50 minutes earlier than they would be required to close due to corona regulations. Amsterdam and Rotterdam were quite busy all day though (with both mayors issuing warnings to avoid certain areas of their cities early in the afternoon). According to reports the crowd levels were more manageable in Utrecht and The Hague.

Note: the above article does have a lovely picture of the “Koopgoot” shopping area. The nickname “Koopgoot” translates to “Shopping gutter”, owing to the fact that it is lower than the street next to it, although still an open area. It’s a lovely area. Just not on Black Friday in 2020…

Happy weekend, everyone!

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Temporary fixes (Or: Amendment to coronavirus regulations sign)

Posted on November 15, 2020 by Niki

At the moment the Netherlands is under an additional layer of coronavirus restrictions, with additional community areas closed like libraries, theaters, cinemas, zoos, theme parks, etc. These additional restrictions will automatically expire on Wednesday (article in English from nltimes.nl) because there has been some improvement in hospitalizations.

Another restriction that is about to expire group sizes outside are currently limited to three (instead of the usual four). The Hague found an interesting way of getting this temporary amendment across:

That’s right. A nice big X of black tape where it says you can only be outside in a group of four. It works, I guess…

In other, Sinterklaas news: as you may or may not know, the subject of Zwarte Piet (Black Pete; link to English Wikipedia) is quite controversial because traditionally the character was portrayed by a white person, in blackface, with black curly hair, red lips and huge golden earrings. You can see the issue there…

But in recent years the trend (at least nationally) has been to have Black Petes with chimney soot on their faces, no curly hair, etc. The national children’s news program Sinterklaasjournaal already adapted this a few years back. The changes have sadly been much slower on a local level (if you remember from an earlier blog post this week, there’s a national Sinterklaas but also a local Sinterklaas for each city).

Dutch libraries are taking another step towards the future by banning all children’s books which depict a black-faced Black Pete, either removing them from their shelves or not buying them in the first place. Read more at the guardian.com: Will Dutch library ban on ‘Black Pete’ books spell end for ‘racist’ festive tradition?

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Standing before closed doors (Or: The Hague library in corona times)

Posted on November 7, 2020 by Niki

Libraries (and museums, theaters, cinemas, etc.) are currently closed in the Netherlands. It is part of an additional set of corona measures that the Dutch government has taken to lower the number of hospitalizations. (The government did provide an exception for libraries to be open for picking up reservations and book deliveries, but The Hague has chosen not to do this.)

I decided to take a photo of the sign at The Hague’s Central Library (Unfortunately we are temporarily closed). Boo!

But I am nothing if not prepared (having heard the rumors of an impending closure on Sunday evening):

Partially because I told myself that if I thought another library closure was coming I would check out additional books. And partially because I don’t expect these extra measures to be lifted after two weeks – even though the prime minister said it would automatically be lifted after that time.

Unfortunately the balance of Dutch versus English books is a bit skewed (1 novel in Dutch versus 4 novels in English). But that happens when you go to the library during a work break and some of the books you wanted to check out aren’t on the shelf. I had to quickly grab some backups after consulting my Goodreads list.

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Swans and ducks by Koekamp (Or: November has arrived)

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Niki

Yesterday I went to Malieveld, the first time in a few months. The last time I was there it was summer and oh so nice and warm… but I chose to avoid it for a while because of the carnival taking up most of the area.

On the way to Malieveld I passed by Koekamp, a small park with deer, swan and ducks. This time I saw more swans then I ever have:

In the background joggers and cyclists rush past. I also saw a swan chasing after two poor ducks for whatever reason. Maybe they stole its lunch?

It’s definitely fall now. Leaves are falling off the trees in buckets, with a cold breeze and spitting rain (motregen in Dutch).

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Attack of the birds (Or: That poor tree)

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Niki

The birds were back this afternoon, and this time they stayed for almost an hour. Fun fact: it actually sounds more like a low, distant rumble when you have hundreds of birds chirping outside your back door.

I don’t think you can fit any additional birds in that tree. And that was actually the smaller tree. The birds also claimed a much larger tree next to this one as their own, but it was less photogenic.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

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