The Hague

Holidays at the Grote Markt (Or: Colorful decorations)

Last week I took some photos of the Christmas trees by the Bijenkorf (a department store). This week I was able to take a few photos of the lights along the Grote Markt street:

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The new tear-shaped lights the city put in earlier this year look really nice!

Lights by the entrance:

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And a look at the lights in the other direction, towards the movie theater and Primark:

christmas-lights-at-the-grote-markt-the-hague-2016

Oh, and today a coworker brought in 12 oliebollen (sorta doughnut-y pastry that is usually made with raisins inside and covered in powdered sugar). They started selling those on November 1st… It is always something to look forward to!

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

Here we go (Or: Christmas at Bijenkorf)

Last week Bijenkorf (an upscale department store) put up their Christmas decorations. See for yourself:

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They also put the lights up outside of the building (here is a photo from 2013).

In other news – I finally ordered a new computer! As you can see from this photo of a library book, I am switching from PC to Mac.

"Van PC naar Mac" library book
If you ignore that one semester in college using a Mac and QuarkXPress for a student job, it will be my first time using a Mac. And yes, it might be geeky but the book has been helpful explaining the differences in keys and in the dock at the bottom of the screen where all the program icons can be found.

Although I have a few more weeks to wait, the computer can’t come soon enough. I wanted to write this blog post on my netbook, but Chrome errored when I tried to open it. I restarted my computer but it has been stuck on a blue screen which says “getting Windows ready – don’t turn off your computer”. For a half hour. Heh…

Update: it came back after 45 minutes, although Chrome is still erroring. Oh well! That is a problem for another day.

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As we enter autumn (Or: Stroopwafel cake)

Over the weekend Roger made stroopwafel cake. Yum!

stroopwafel-cake

Here’s a closeup of one of the slices:

piece-of-stroopwafel-cake

And, for randomness, here is a look at the fall mural for Eat Company, drawn by Sophia den Breems:

eat-company-the-hague-fall-2016-mural

Spring 2016 mural || Summer 2016 mural

Categories: Food, The Hague | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

A Wednesday outing (Or: Cocktails by Milu)

Last week I went out with my colleagues for Wednesday night €5 cocktails at Milu (Dutch | English). It’s a restaurant close to the Grote Kerk (a well-known church in the center of The Hague).

First drink - a spicy mango martini, chosen in honor of Marco, who loves mango stuff ;)

First drink – a spicy mango martini, chosen in honor of Marco, who loves mango stuff 😉

Actually Milu was where Marco and I had our wedding reception (back when it was known as “Het Wapon”). We hadn’t been back since it closed and this one came in, so it was admittedly weird to walk back inside and at some point to go upstairs (both the bathrooms and the festival room are there).

Continue reading

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Belgium turns orange (Or: Verstappen mania)

Here in the Netherlands you have an up-and-coming Dutch racer by the name of Max Verstappen. He’s been around for a few years, starting with the story that he was racing in Formula 1 before he had a driver’s license. Earlier in the year he won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.

Today is the Belgian Grand Prix, where Verstappen starts 2nd (although at the time of writing, he’s slipping back to 13th due to some car damage). But of course – Belgium has turned orange! Around 50,000 Dutchies were expected to travel to the neighboring country to be at the track. Traffic jams have been reported the entire weekend (article in Dutch) – at its worst about 2 hours extra traveling time.

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Photo: Filip Cleeren

The above photo was taken by Filip Cleeren and comes from the article Analysis: Max-Mania at Spa as F1 turns orange (in English).

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New metro station (Or: The Hague to Rotterdam)

As of yesterday the new metro station at The Hague’s Centraal station is ready! It connects The Hague with Rotterdam via metro line E. Marco and I were waiting for a bus to Wassenaar so I took some pictures from a distance:

New metro station at The Hague Centraal

The white tunnel form definitely reminds me of the design near the Beatrixlaan station. And another one:

New metro station at The Hague Centraal 2

Maybe Marco and I have a good reason to finally visit Rotterdam now. I think the last time I was there was for a WWE wrestling show… But that was three years ago, so I am sure I have been back since then. Right? 🙂

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Remnants of theater (Or: Dr. Anton Philipszaal)

Back in December I showed a picture of the tearing down of the Dr. Anton Philipszaal in The Hague. Remarkably, there’s still a small piece of the building left:

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Marco and I were on the way to Lebkov by Centraal Station for some coffee. We ended up with iced cappuccinos – yum! Since it’s a nice summer day (but not THAT nice of a summer, the Dutch meteologists say…)

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And a look at their logo:

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Oh, and one final fun fact – as usual, Sinterklaas candy is already popping up in stores. It’s only August people! 🙂

Categories: Everyday purchases, The Hague | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Summer eating (Or: Rrrollend Food truck festival by Malieveld, The Hague)

Yesterday Marco, Roger and I saw Suicide Squad at the local IMAX movie theatre (Pathé Spuimarkt). Afterwards we visited the Rrrollend Food truck festival by Malieveld, close to Centraal Station.

And what delicious food! Here’s a look at some of the photos I took. First, a look at my Asian Chicken bowl from Roll or Bowl:

Asian chicken by Roll or Bowl (Den Haag food truck festival) Continue reading

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Random reads (Or: An exercise in Dutch)

Last month I posted my reading list for th first half of 2016. So far, July is going even better! I have read about 560 pages (around 18 a day, but I have a hard time sitting down and reading on a daily basis so it is much more varied than that).

Here is a look at some of the books I’ve read in Dutch (or am reading) this month:

1) Never let me go (Laat me nooit alleen) by Kazuo Ishiguro (English | Dutch), a dystopian science fiction novel which follows the lives of three students at a boarding school. But these students (and their classmates) are in fact clones, raised for the sole purpose of providing organs to others once they graduate.

2) The guest cat (De kat) by Takashi Hiraide (English | Dutch), a short book (~160 pages) about a cat who visits a young, work-at-home couple on a daily basis. Free to come and go as he pleases, the cat quickly becomes the centerpiece of their lives, even though he is only a guest.

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3) Player One (Speler een) by Douglas Coupland (English | Dutch). I just started this one. It follows four people at airport bar over 5 hours as a worldwide disaster begins outside — Karen, who waits on a perspective internet date; Rick, a bartender who no longer drinks; Luke, a pastor who fled with his church’s savings; Rachel, who has trouble connecting with others; and a mysterious voice known only as “Player One”.

4) The Dog Stars (De Hondsster) by Peter Heller (English | Dutch). I haven’t started this one yet. “Hig somehow survived the flu pandemic that killed everyone he knows. Now his wife is gone, his friends are dead, and he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper, and a mercurial, gun-toting misanthrope named Bangley.” Hmmm….

And on to August!

Categories: Reading, The Hague | Tags: | 2 Comments

A delicious pairing (Or: Coffee and chocolate ice cubes)

Yesterday Marco and I made two sorts of ice cubes:

On the top you have coffee ice cubes (just make coffee and let it cool, then put it in the freezer). The other is chocolate and agave syrup ice cubes (1/4 cup agave syrup, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, and two cups water — receipe taken from here).

Coffee ice cubes (top) chocolate and agave ice cubes (bottom)

And no, I have no idea why the middle three ice cubes are lighter in color. Weird!

Chocolate and agave ice cubes

Above: the chocolate/agave ice cubes.

Iced coffee with chocolate and coffee ice cubes

Above: The finished product. Yum. I can think of some ways to improve it (and add texture) but for a first try it was pretty good.

Categories: Food, The Hague | Tags: | 10 Comments

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