Over the weekend Roger made stroopwafel cake. Yum!
Here’s a closeup of one of the slices:
And, for randomness, here is a look at the fall mural for Eat Company, drawn by Sophia den Breems:
The Hague
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 😉
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).
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.
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).
Categories: The Hague
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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:
The white tunnel form definitely reminds me of the design near the Beatrixlaan station. And another one:
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? 🙂
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:
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…)
And a look at their logo:
Oh, and one final fun fact – as usual, Sinterklaas candy is already popping up in stores. It’s only August people! 🙂
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:
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.
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!
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).
And no, I have no idea why the middle three ice cubes are lighter in color. Weird!
Above: the chocolate/agave 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.
Lazy Sundays (Or: In the sun)
This is a friend’s other cat (the first one making her way to my blog last month). Happily lying in the sun…
Amaze Escape in The Hague (Or: Time to get locked up)
On Monday and I had a team building event with work colleagues. We decided to go to Amaze Escape, an Escape room. You can read more about them at Wikipedia (English | Dutch). In short, you and the rest of your group (coworkers, friends, etc.) are locked up in a room for an hour or an hour and a half and you have to solve puzzles to get out. Each room has a different theme.
In our case we had 9 people so we went with the two competition rooms (Black and White). Whichever team gets out first wins! You are both solving the same puzzles. The best part was that halfway through you realized you could hear (and see, a little bit) the other team so it got pretty tense. My team ended up winning, but only with about two minutes to spare.
It is a great team building exercise – everyone brings something to the table. I’m proud of the fact that I figured out the last clue to unlock the trophy (and others, of course) – there wasn’t much time left and we were starting to panic. All in all a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend trying an escape room near you!
A few sights on the walk back – a windmill:
And a sign for a restaurant on the side of a building:
Categories: The Hague, Working & Volunteering
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Life in the Hague 