This is a friend’s other cat (the first one making her way to my blog last month). Happily lying in the sun…
The Hague
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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Ride free with tram 11 day (Or: HTM flyers and ice cream)
Yesterday HTM had a promotion to ride free with tram 11 so that you could experience the new Avenio trams. So far tram 2, 11, and 17 ride with the new model. 11 has had the new model for a while, but considering the route is from Station Holland Spoor to the beach (stop Strandweg), perhaps they were waiting for better weather. And we definitely had awesome weather!
Tram 11 coming around the corner (actually at the beach, so this photo was taken on the way back):
A promotional cover over the machine you normally use to check in and out. It says ‘Travel today for free’.
It must be almost summer (Or: Iced coffes galore)
This will be a very coffee-themed post… It’s almost summer (maybe) so it is a lot more fun to drink iced coffees. First up we have a frappé from the library café, Bibliotheek Den Haag. I found it so tasty I had to struggle not to drink it all up within 30 seconds.
Second we have a Starbucks drink from a coworker (her blog and her Instagram). After a while it gets old just writing your name on the side, so these days the Starbucks workers write random messages on the side. It’s raining men… and coffee!
Next we have a summery mural from the Eat Company from the artist Sophia den Breems. I’ve previously blogged about the Spring 2016 mural here.
Finally, the latest discovery… iced chai tea by Kaldi! It’s hidden away in the Haagsche Bluf. It’s the drink on the left, next to Marco’s iced cappuccino. It was delicious, a slightly thicker concoction with the chai tea taste at the end.
Categories: Everyday purchases, The Hague
Tags: coffee, Eat company, Haagsche Bluf, Kaldi, Libraries, Starbucks
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Adventures in Malieveld (Or: The Hague skyline)
Last week Marco and I visited Malieveld, a large grass field near Central Station which hosts everything from festivals to carnivals and even (pre-approved) protests and demonstrations. The weather was great for an after-dinner stroll.
Take a look at The Hague’s skyline from this area:
There’s even an animal farm, complete with (slightly skittish) deer.
I am looking forward to the next day of bright sunshine and warm temperatures. The city definitely comes alive!
Rrrollend Den Haag (Or: Food trucks… and books)
Yesterday Marco and I had a quick look at the Rrrollend food truck festival at the Lange Voorhout (next to Buitenhof).
The first thing you see when you enter the festival is stacks of books, which caught my eye enough to take a few photos of them:
And Buitenhof above:
And just the books:
Palace Garden (Or: Enjoying a day off)
As I mentioned in my last blog post, Thursday was a holiday here in the Netherlands – Ascension Day (40 days after Easter). It was also Liberation Day (Dutch | English). For most people, that is only an official holiday every 5 years (2015, 2020, …) so most people had the day off because of Ascension Day.
But the reason Thursday was so great was the weather – 18c, or low 60s. A great day of sun that almost everyone got to enjoy. Since Friday we’ve been in the 70s.
Marco and I went to Hometown Coffee where I again ordered my iced mocha coffee. Yum! Marco got a blended cappuccino. Due to the good weather we decided to take a walk. Somewhere along the way we decided to go to the Palace Garden (Paleistuin in Dutch) where we found a bench to soak up some sun and watch the kids play on the playground.
And that’s the thing – good weather is precious here in the Netherlands and something to enjoy. The city comes alive in this time, with the outdoor cafés crowded, every table in the sun taken. It’s a great time!
(And here is a shoutout to my mom on this Mother’s Day!)
Rain rain go away (Or: Life I Live festival in The Hague)
King’s day was on Wednesday this year, which meant that the Life I Live festival took place the night before. In short, the night before the holiday the center of the city closes down for the festival, with various music stages set up around the area. Most of the major genres are represented – jazz, rock, blues, covers and more.
Problem is the weather was pretty horrible, especially later in the night. It was also apparently the coldest festival ever. So it was pretty hard to stay out longer than an hour!
Here is a look at two of the street art pieces that were created during the festival from scratch. Street art #1:
Street art #2:
Street art #2, another angle:
Here’s a look at the newly installed lights on the Grote Markt. They alternatively glowed orange …
and the colors of the Dutch flag:
You can also see photos from the 2013 Queen’s night, which has better photos of the stage and the actual event itself.
Voting in The Hague (Or: The Ukraine referendum)
Marco and I went to a voting center in the neighborhood to vote on the Ukraine referendum (ABC news – English). Well, he voted – I can’t yet. The weather turned pretty bad in the late afternoon, with pouring rain at times, but luckily it had mostly died by the time we went out.
I’m not a very political person, but basically the referendum is about a trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine, with some opponents saying it is really a thinly veiled stepping stone towards Ukraine asking for EU membership.
Voting card (or “Stempas” in Dutch)
In the end there wasn’t much to report on – while we had gone to a voting place which should have been a rather popular choice, there was no one else around voting at the time. (Which was to be expected – it remains to be seen if the Netherlands will get the 30% of voters needed to make this vote count, whatever the result is. But if they mange that, it would be “just barely”). Marco says the voting card only asked one question – to state if you were for or against the referendum. It was over before we knew it!
“Your behavior in the voting area” – The images are probably enough, but 1) Have your voting card and ID card ready 2) Don’t block the view of the voting bureau workers 3) Only one person per booth
Interestingly, the voting card said that voters only needed to have an government-issued ID that was valid through April 6, 2011 – that is, 5 years ago. And no, it wasn’t a typo.
Marco says he will take me along for next year’s vote, for the Dutch elections. That should prove to be more lively.
Hop on, hop off (Or: New tourist tram in The Hague)
In June of this year, The Hague will begin a hop-on, hop-off tram service aimed at tourists (Article: English | Dutch).
From the English article: “The Tourist Tram, in historical cream with a green trim, is launching in June. The route connects the historic city center, the planned museum district around Lange Voorhout, the Vredespaleis and the Kurhaus together. It will also travel through the international zone, the Gemeentemuseum and Omniversum and go all the way Scheveningen.”
Tickets will cost 14 euros, or 18 euros per day, while kids under 12 can ride for 5 euros for two days. I thought that was a bit pricey considering a day ticket for HTM (The Hague’s bus and tram service) costs 6 and a half euros per day, but it looks like this tourist tram includes an audio tour which is in several different languages, including Haags (The Hague’s dialect). The route also links together a lot of tourist hot spots, so you only have to board one tram and you don’t have to research all of the routes. That could be a big plus for tourists.
The tourist tram that will start running in June (photo: Maurice Haak / Den Haag)
The tram is mainly intended for the summer months, traveling every half hour between 09.30 and 17.30. After the summer, it will only be in service on weekends or holidays. Hopefully it is a good enough investment that they can expand service a bit!
Life in the Hague 