The Hague

Willem II on horseback (Or: A statue reborn?)

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo is of the Willem II statue by the Buitenhof:

There’s some interesting tidbits with this statue.

  • Before 1924 a different statue of Willem II was in this spot (link to Dutch Wikipedia). For unknown reasons The Hague government wanted to instead install a replica of a statue found in Luxemborg: still Willem II, but on horseback. The original statue at the Buitenhof was sold to Tilburg for 1000 gulden (the equivalent of about 7,500 to 8,000 euros today). This replacement is recorded at the base of the statue in the photo above.
  • In the early 1990’s The Hague government wanted to install a “freedom carillon” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of World War II. The bells would have either been placed quite close to the statue or in the statue’s very spot. Part of the problem was that the bells would have been 25 meters (82 feet) high, which might have been too jarring in that area. Momumentenzorg Den Haag has some scans of news articles from the 1990’s covering the situation, if you speak Dutch. But in the end the plans for the “freedom carillon” were thrown out (article from cobouw.nl).

As expected, the weekly coronavirus numbers from the RIVM were a bit high: about twice as many cases as last week (987 compared to 534), 19 hospitalizations and 7 deaths. But not all of those were numbers from the past 7 days, at least.

Outside of that, it’s mainly keeping on top of work during the day and relaxing at night. But the work days do go by quick, at least!

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Watching over the city (Or: Statue of Haagse Harry)

Posted on July 18, 2020 by Niki

The weather today is just as good as predicted! Lots of sun, lots of warmth. I decided to take a photo of the Haagse Harry statue over by the Grote Markt plaza:

We don’t have any big plans this weekend, which has been great after a long week of work. In addition to enjoying some sun earlier I also played around with Affinity Designer a bit this morning, working on some isometric designs.

I’m also in the middle of reading My Year of Rest and Relaxation in Dutch but I have to admit some of the humor is either too dark or gross for me. Not enough to stop reading, but definitely enough to ask myself “What the heck?” sometimes.

In other news:

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Former glory (Or: Repainting of the Chinatown gate in The Hague)

Posted on July 14, 2020 by Niki

The Chinatown gate in The Hague’s city centre has been repainted, a task first mentioned in a blog post from June. Here is the end result:

This is the Chinatown gate near Bijenkorf. Unfortunately the other one is not scheduled to be repainted at this time. Perhaps because that would require closing a street to cars? Not sure.

There was also a small crisis averted yesterday: Marco and I were almost out of coffee, with only one pack left. Luckily Albert Heijn had a deal: buy 2 packs, get 2 packs free. Score! Coffee is one of those things I can’t imagine paying full price for, since we’ve now gotten into a pattern of stocking up just enough until the next good sale.

In other news:

  • It’s Tuesday, so the Dutch health ministry released the weekly COVID-19 statistics (from nltimes.nl). There were 8 deaths and 16 hospitalizations reported in the last week, although some might have occurred before last week. A slight worrying point is the rise in positive cases: 534 compared to 432 last week.
  • Another addition at a Dutch zoo, this time a red panda (complete with short video), from nltimes.nl. If you can read Dutch or your Google translate is up for the task, there’s also an article on nu.nl about possible names for the giant panda baby born a few months ago.
  • Here is a picture from Reddit of the Neowise comet, taken in the east of the Netherlands. Bonus: it also features a windmill.
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Slightly brown water (Or: Pond by Centraal train station)

Posted on July 13, 2020 by Niki

Not far from Centraal Station, and before you reach Malieveld, there is a pond. The water is a bit brown, and there may or may not be honking geese around, but it is a slice of nature nonetheless.

It’s also a bit of a reminder that I should take a different path sometimes. Normally I follow this path until it reaches Malieveld, but on the other side of those trees there’s a deer camp that goes by the name of Koekamp (Dutch Wikipedia). Of course Koekamp translates to cow camp, not deer camp, but okay. The Wikipedia page mentions that this used to be a hunting area full of bovine, with the earliest reference dating back to 1316. The deer took over sometime in the 17th century.

Interesting story I forgot to mention yesterday: I walked past the central library just before 12:00 and was surprised to see four or five people waiting in line by the library entrance. In these corona times the library is closed on Sundays, hence my surprise. I wonder if there was an event going on, but I don’t think so. More likely the first person stood in line and then others walked past, saw the line and thought the library was about to open so they joined too. I hope they weren’t waiting in line for too long!

In other news:

  • Rutte wants to continue as PM but still uncertain; Relaxing Covid rules was “terrifying” from nltimes.nl. That’s Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister. I had not realized there was any doubt that he would run for re-election next March. It also talks about the death of his mother in a nursing home a few months ago during the height of the corona crisis. The strict visitation rules and his workload prevented him from visiting her in her final days. Her death did not leak to the press until two weeks after the fact; he kept it secret so that it would not be a distraction.
  • Beach pavilions cannot operate this winter but can stay standing: Minister from nltimes.nl. The government has struck a compromise with beach pavilion owners: to prevent unnecessary costs pavilions do not need to be dismantled during the winter, although they cannot open to customers. The reason pavilions are normally dismantled is due to winter storms. Any costs due to storms or vandalism would still need to be covered by pavilion owners.
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Always watching (Or: Johan de Witt in the rain)

Posted on July 4, 2020 by Niki

My plan of getting good photos this weekend for the blog has been temporarily halted by one very rainy Saturday. Boo!

But I did get a picture of the Johan de Witt statue:

That is a carefully cropped photo to try and hide any construction that was going on in the background. But otherwise, yeah, it was not pleasant weather at all.

In other news:

Here’s hoping Sunday has some sun in store for us!

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Invasion of the farmers (Or: Part 2)

Posted on July 3, 2020 by Niki

Okay – it wasn’t exactly an invasion. Not like last time anyway, when farmers in trackers stormed the Malieveld and destroyed the grass. More like a small skirmish. The Dutch government has stated that if cows are fed cattle feed that is less protein rich there will be less nitrogen released which will allow the construction sector to build new homes (aka one sector makes less nitrogen pollution to allow another sector to keep polluting).

The farmers were understandably less than thrilled about that plan so they drove their tractors to The Hague to protest outside of the Binnenhof during yesterday’s vote. In the end the vote was delayed until 01:30 early Friday morning, and then delayed again to 03:30. See also Central The Hague sealed off to angry farmers as MPs vote to cut protein in animal feed from dutchnews.nl.

The government ultimately decided to go ahead with the plan to reduce protein in the cattle feed. In an attempt to prevent the chaos that happened last October, the military was called in to block off certain streets so that tractors wouldn’t disrupt the city too much today.

I decided to take a quick walk over to the Malieveld this afternoon to see what was going on. The only thing I found was a van from the national public television company (NOS) waiting for something newsworthy to happen. But by this point all of the farmers were gone, so they were just standing around. Poor NOS reporters!

If you are interested in more photos check out the article Boeren protesteren tegen de voermaatregel from regio15.nl (Farmers protest against the feed measure).

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Canals and bikes (Or: Outside the gardens)

Posted on July 2, 2020 by Niki

You know what you find a lot of in The Hague? Canals. (Okay, less than you used to.)

And what else? Bikes. (THAT one is probably growing exponentially!)

The rule in The Netherlands is: if it fits, I sits. (Oh wait, that rule is for cats.) But if it fits, bikes will be placed!

For a lighter news article, let’s try Child-interrupted TV broadcasts ‘show reality for working parents’ from theguardian.com. I think it’s cute, and glad that people see it happen. It is definitely a reality a lot of workers face these days!

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Blue skies and red windows (Or: Old city hall)

Posted on July 1, 2020 by Niki

Blue skies all around, and we’re halfway to the weekend!

This is the old city hall of The Hague, which I have photographed a few times. The red windows are always the first thing you notice when walking past.

The dark brown building at the right of my photo has an Eat Company mural with an autumn theme, which you can just barely see. The company was changing it seasonably back in 2015-2016, but this mural was never painted over after it was added in 2016. So we’ve been stuck in autumn for the last five years almost…

Today’s news theme is apparently bikes:

  • Bicycle Cities Index 2019 from coya.com. Utrecht has taken the top spot on this global list. The criteria included percentage of bicycle users, safety, anti-theft measures, bicycle-related crime and road infrastructure. Go Dutchies!
  • France bans Dutch bike TV ad for creating ‘climate of fear’ about cars from theguardian.com. I saw the end of this commercial yesterday but didn’t think anything of it. Although I did to turn Marco and ask him “VanMoof? Who names their company VanMOOF?”. But apparently the commercial is very anti-car, including images of factories, accidents, traffic jams and flashing lights of emergency vehicles in the reflection of the car before it melts and reforms as a bike.
  • World’s second biggest bike garage opens in The Hague from nltimes.nl. With space for nearly 8,000 bikes! It’s found underground at The Hague’s Centraal Station. And can you guess who has the biggest bike garage in the world currently? Also the Dutchies. Utrecht – not a coincidence considering my first news point above – has a bike garage with space for 12,000 bikes (!).
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On a dreary, wet day (Or: Where did the weekend go?)

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Niki

Rain, rain go away

Come again another day

I think the morning and early afternoon were relatively dry, but how would I know? Work kept me inside sadly. By the time everything got sorted in the late afternoon, the sky was a dark grey and rain was looming. But Marco and I both needed fresh air, so we did not let that stop us. And sure, we got rained on, but at least we got our fresh air…

But in the spirit of that, I’ll share a photo of the Palace Gardens which I took last week:

Lovely blue skies, great temperatures, all you could want without ever having to leave your hometown.

Although that one stray tree branch in the top middle of the photo does look a bit out of place. Anyone have a ladder and a tree cutter?

In other news, The Hague libraries will be opening up a bit more starting tomorrow (1 July), as the Dutch government has relaxed some of the corona measures. Unfortunately it is still only open 12:00-17:00 Monday through Saturday. But you can go there to study, read newspapers, visit the café for coffee and snacks, etc. You can also use library computers for up to 60 minutes per day. See more (in Dutch) at Studeren, uw krantje lezen en meer: veel kan weer!

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No corona here (Or: Sign outside a bar)

Posted on June 29, 2020 by Niki

Check out the sign that I spotted outside a local bar:

Perhaps I should have stopped for a craft beer. Sounds good!

(What’s with the weird lining in the word ‘here’ though? The rest of the words only have one line.)

In other news… did you know we live in a banana republic now?

You can click the link in the Regio15 tweet to see the article in Dutch, but the general summary is: some people are still not happy that the Viruswaanzin demonstrations were banned two weekends in a row, so they went to the Paleis van Justitie (Justice Palace) and left bananas to signify we now live in a banana republic.

So yeah. I guess I need to update my address now.

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