The Hague

Don’t get blown away (Or: Storm Francis knocks on the door)

Posted on August 25, 2020 by Niki

Heat wave? What heat wave? The weather has definitely changed. I was actually a bit cold in bed last night! Scandalous.

Storm Francis poised to hit the Netherlands, winds of up to 80kph expected from dutchnews.nl. There’s also an article at omroepwest.nl (in Dutch) about the preparations The Hague is taking to minimize any damage from storm Francis. Think of things like breaking down beach equipment or closing roads which have already seen branches break off recently. The city is also strategically placing cables in trees on the Lange Voorhout to make sure if a branch breaks the entire tree doesn’t come down. Those really are beautiful trees, so I can see why they want to protect them (photo from a blog post earlier this month):

And, amusingly enough, there’s a bouncy castle festival going on in the region. The organizers mentioned that the festival would be cancelled tomorrow and they would be letting the air out of the cushions in preparation for the storm coming this evening. Seriously, a bouncy castle festival. How cool is that. My six year old self probably would have loved that.

Of course, nothing will top the wind storm of 2018. Yeesh.

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“Out is inside this year!” (Or: UIT festival in The Hague)

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Niki

The UIT festival is a cultural festival normally held on the Lange Voorhout in The Hague, about a 5-10 minute walk from the city centre. Uitgaan in Dutch means “to go out”. This year, due to the coronavirus, the festival was renamed to “Binnen uit”, or “Inside uit”, referring to the fact that the cultural events will mostly be held inside this year. Reservations are also generally required.

If you are interested in reserving tickets for one of the cultural institutions, you can read more information over at the UIT festival website. Here’s an example: Around the Grote Kerk, a carillon concert from the Tong Tong Fair. In that case no reservations are needed since the bells can be heard over a wide area.

And behind the promotional material in my photo you can see work being done on the building. A Japanese clothing store with the name Uniqlo will open in October of this year.

…Can I have my Marks and Spencer back instead please? They had good food and coffee! I still have an incomplete stamp card for a free coffee, darnit!

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Annastraat in The Hague (Or: Side street in the city centre)

Posted on August 19, 2020 by Niki

Today I’ve chosen a random photo of the city centre for you. Take a look at Annastraat:

As noted, it’s in the city centre: not far from the Grote Kerk and just around the corner from restaurant Milu, where Marco and I held our wedding reception back in 2013, although it was a different restaurant then.

DutchNews.nl has updated their coronavirus article with the changes announced during the press conference: Coronavirus in the Netherlands: what you need to know, update August 19

In and other news: Germans must walk their dogs twice a day, new law will say from theguardian.com. And each walk must last an hour. In theory it sounds good for dogs everywhere. Yet in reality it seems too hard to enforce. Does it take older or sick dogs into consideration? Or bad weather (freezing temperatures or scorching temperatures)? Personally I don’t expect to see this law lasting long… but you never know.

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A flurry of colored feathers (Or: Owl graffiti)

Posted on August 17, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo is of a large piece of graffiti over on the Boomsluiterskade, not far from the Bierkade:

And as I always say: it’s not a Dutch photo without a pile of bikes in front of it!

Today’s big news: A sizable portion of The Hague (the city centre, Duindorp, Scheveningen and more) has been without electricity since just after 11 in the morning – about 37,000 households. Turns out there was a fire in one of the power stations. Luckily Marco and I didn’t have any issues – I have too much to do for work! But a lot of people were trapped in elevators, a lot of stores in the city centre and the city hall were forced to close, trams were diverted, etc. It was a bit chaotic today, that’s for sure.

There are lots of photos over at: Grote stroomstoring Den Haag na brand hoofdverdeelstation from regio15.nl

Some of the city centre had its electricity restored after a few hours, the rest is only starting to get electricity again within the last half hour. The good news is that it didn’t happen last week during the crazy heat wave. I can’t imagine that scenario. After two days of loud, rumbling storms and the occasional moments of pouring rain, it has finally started to cool down around here. Yay.

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The beginnings of a protest (Or: Who needs corona laws?)

Posted on August 16, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo comes from Malieveld yesterday morning, just before lunchtime. Apparently there was a demonstration against the upcoming coronaspoedwet (corona emergency law) that the Dutch government is currently working on.

This is actually the beginning, as people had just begun to arrive. In the end the demonstration grew to a few thousand people. There’s a video at nu.nl: Zo’n 2.500 mensen demonstreren tegen coronaspoedwet op Malieveld.

On the way back there was a group of three people who took up most of the path. Since they didn’t move to the left of the path I deliberately made a wide arc and started walking in the grass for a while to avoid them. I figured they were part of an anti-corona demonstration so they probably couldn’t care less about keeping the proper amount of space between me and them.

In other news: Mind your Ps: Amsterdam installs plant pot street urinals to improve toilet manners from dutchnews.nl. Interesting idea. It can only help – people are going to find a place to pee whether or not one of these exists. If you’re lucky, they find a corner in the shadow. If you’re not, well, then, you need to look the other way. Generally there is a bigger problem with outdoor peeing (wildplassen in Dutch) at night, so it makes sense that the urinals are only open at night; during the day the plant urinal “doors” are closed. (There’s also hidden urinals near the Grote Kerk in The Hague – they only pop out of the ground at night. During the day you only see an innocent looking circle on the ground.)

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Koekamp (Or: A glimpse of nature in the heart of The Hague)

Posted on August 15, 2020 by Niki

I mentioned Koekamp, a park for red deer and fallow deer, a few weeks back. It’s less than a 5 minute walk from The Hague’s Centraal train station.

A look at the area. If you look closely, you can spot a deer behind the picnic table in the middle-left part of the photo.

They are very smartly taking a nap (this was just before lunch). If you can read Dutch, try the article Op de Koekamp ligt het oudste hertenkamp van Nederland from boswatchersblog.nl. Keep in mind the number of deer is artificially controlled (to prevent inbreeding, among other reasons), and not all deer can find a new home.

And lastly, here is a photo of some stags. Male red deer are apparently known as bucks, whereas fallow deer (known for their spots) are called stags.

And there is your cuteness for the day!

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Dwarsligger? (Or: I call them mini books)

Posted on August 14, 2020 by Niki

Here is something I don’t think you find often in America: mini books with the text parallel to the spine instead of perpendicular. The Dutch call them dwarsliggers, which the English Wikipedia article says translates to “crossbeam” or “sleeper”. Perhaps it is related to trains? Google translate says it could also be “railway sleeper”.

ARGH! Why is the book on the left upside down? Why didn’t I notice that when taking this picture and fix it?

And in case you can’t visualize what I mean with parellel to the spine, here’s an image from Wikimedia Commons, taken by user Pienfie.

Nederland, Amsterdam, Promotiemateriaal Ambo Anthos/ Jongbloed-Dwarsligger, Foto: Mark Kohn

So yeah, a mini book. You can hold it in one hand. Good if you’re standing in the train – hold the railing with one hand and hold the book with the other. I suppose if you have really good coordination you can turn the page with your thumb. I don’t think my coordination is that good, especially not while standing in a moving train.

Oh, and the Dutch zoo’s panda cub was named after Vincent Van Gogh, receiving the Chinese name Fan Xing. “Fan” refers back to Van Gogh (Fan Goa in Chinese) and Xing refer’s to the panda’s father, Xing Ya. Xing also means “star” in Chinese, which, if you want to take it that far, could refer to Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting.

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Just a tree (Or: One lonely tree)

Posted on August 12, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo is of the tree in the Centraal Park (at least, that’s the name Google Maps gives it). This park is not far from Centraal Station and the Malieveld.

But it’s one little tree, all on its own:

But it does provide some nice shade, that’s for sure.

My coworkers and I found out today that we will be working from home until at least January 2021. That is a very long time, but it was to be expected considering the circumstances. Mostly I think: ooh, January. Hopefully cooler temperatures! (The Netherlands is still in the middle of a heatwave at the moment.)

In other news: Ad falls flat: Coca-Cola to remove ‘inappropriate’ Amsterdam tourism banner (dutchnews.nl). The rather large ad says Ik zeg nooit meer ‘er zijn te veel toeristen in mijn stad’. Or, in English: I will never again say ‘there are too many tourists in my city’. The problem is that since the tourists came back, the issues with drug and alcohol use has skyrocketed in parts of Amsterdam. Because of that some local residents aren’t that happy with tourists at the moment.

Stay cool, everyone…

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Changes in De Passage (Or: A bit of separating green)

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Niki

De Passage (literally “The Passage”) added plants last month to help shoppers walk on the correct side.

Each set of plants is about a meter long so it does create a natural divide between shoppers walking in different directions. The Passage has come a long way since having tiny arrows by the entrance.

And because it’s a beautiful area, here’s a look at the Apple store:

It’s right in the center of De Passage, where the Christmas tree is placed each year.

And now for some cute news: The panda cub born in the Netherlands earlier this year will be 100 days old on Friday. It is tradition that its name is revealed on the 100th day. The possible choices are: He Kang, He Shun, Fan Xing, Dan Qing, and Zing He. And for your one minute of cuteness, here is a video made by zoo:

If all goes well, vistors can view it sometime in October.

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Landscaping around the Grote Kerk (Or: A bit of nature in the city centre)

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo is of the landscaping round the Grote Kerk, taken sometime last week. In this weather I’d be surprised if half of it wasn’t drying out.

Due to weather, water companies in the Netherlands warned there could be water shortages (article from nltimes.nl). The issues are due to the warm weather and the fact that a lot of people are staying in the Netherlands for vacation this year.

What else does excessive heat bring? People who want to go to the beach. However yesterday and today the sea was rated as ‘extremely dangerous’ with rip tides reported (nltimes.nl). And that is sadly true: four swimmers lost their lives yesterday.

Oh, and the beach in Scheveningen has never been busier (article from omroepwest.nl), with roads in that direction shut down by lunchtime yesterday for a while. The heatwave is here to stay for a bit longer, so buckle up. It’ll only get warmer! ☀️

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