The Hague

Start of the holiday season (Or: Lights at De Passage)

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Niki

De Passage (the covered shopping area in The Hague’s city centre) has started getting ready for the coming holiday season. It’s a bit early, but in the Netherlands the first holiday is Sinterklaas. That holiday is on 5 December, a full three weeks before Christmas.

It’s not much yet (there’s no Christmas tree yet), but it’s a start.

And in other news: Jeers for beers: mechanic chucks out artwork at Lisse museum from dutchnews.nl. The artwork was two handprinted beer cans left on display in an elevator, so the mistake definitely makes sense. The museum has gotten a lot of publicity due to it, so I am sure they are happy. (The not-beer cans were later found in the trash, so there was no harm done.)

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Oliebollen time! (Or: Grote Marktstraat in the rain)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Niki

As mentioned in my last post, the oliebollen stand opened yesterday, 1 October. As you can see it was immediately swarmed.

Marco also made good on his promise to go take the picture above and buy oliebollen, so we already had our first ones of the season yesterday evening, with the obligatory coffee.

And yes, it is rainy in the Netherlands of late. I took a chance this morning by not bringing my umbrella on my walk to work. I regretted it around the halfway mark. Boo. It looks like there will be less rain the rest of the week, though.

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Flowers by the Paleistuin, The Hague (Or: A bit of color)

Posted on September 22, 2024 by Niki

A few weeks back Marco and I walked through the Paleistuin while waiting for a dinner reservation at Niko, a Japanese restaurant. I took a photo of some of the flowers at the Paleistuin (=Palace Garden).

It was a just a bit of colour to break through all of the green. I think it is a bit too late in the year to see lots of different colors at these gardens, unfortunately.

Here is a look at some of the food we had at Niko:

Above is a salmon dish – and my favorite photo.

Above is an eel dish. I am not the biggest fan of eel, but in small quantities it’s fine. The cucumber underneath was de-li-cious, though, after soaking in that awesome sauce.

Above is a beef tartare dish. I don’t like anything with egg that still looks like egg (cooked or uncooked), but once someone else stirs it in I’m fine with it. It was pretty tasty, actually.

Roger’s mochi dessert. If you have never had mochi, this might be an interesting article to read: Trying and failing to describe the texture of mochi.

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Rainbows (Or: Rainy day at the Peace Palace)

Posted on September 16, 2024 by Niki

Check out this photo I took of the Peace Palace (Wikipedia) last week:

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In De Passage (Or: Hat Exhibition Chapeau!)

Posted on September 5, 2024 by Niki

The hat exhibition “Chapeau!” has returned to De Passage in The Hague’s city centre:

De Passage is a covered shopping area first opened in 1885. Insane! That makes it the oldest shopping area in the Netherlands.

More than 20 years ago a hat store in De Passage closed, but the stock was never removed from the upper area above the shop. In 2020, 3,000 hats were found. In 2022 (and again this year), 2,000 of those hats were put on display. This is the same spot where they display the Christmas tree every year.

Read more at the official website in Dutch or English.

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Tour de France Femmes (Or: Coming next week to The Hague)

Posted on August 6, 2024 by Niki

On Monday, August 12 the first stage of Tour de France Femmes will start in Rotterdam and end in The Hague. The neutralized start is at 12:15 with the expected arrival in The Hague around 15:33. Here is a look at the route posted on The Hague’s website. It skirts the city centre on the far right side, riding past the HCM Westeinde hospital in the top right before turning left again, heading to the beach.

Here’s an image from the official Tour website to show you just how flat the Netherlands is… woo boy, we go from 10 meters height to 8 meters, after 123 km (76.5 miles) of racing. Or maybe I mean that we are just low and close to the sea level? That is the meaning of the Netherlands after all (=lower countries).

Yep, the Netherlands is very, very flat and/or low…

Here is a look at the banner at The Hague’s city hall. Ignore the construction – there is a project going on to finally replace the stones around the city hall and main library.

Here is a prettier look, albeit from the side.

I probably won’t attend in person as I need to work, but I’ll try and follow it online since it will be cool to see the racing going through the streets of The Hague.

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What summer needs (Or: An ice cream cone from the Ijskabinet)

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Niki

What do you do on a warm summer evening? You go get ice cream, of course.

The Ijskabinet (literally “ice cabinet”) is an ice cream store in The Hague’s city centre, across the street from the Buitenhof/Hofvijver. They have been there since 2019 but this was our first time.

I knew I wanted a cone, but I quickly opted for a decadent chocolate cone. Then they asked if I wanted sprinkles, and I said yes, thinking they meant the sprinkles would be on top of the ice cream. Nope…

Apparently that meant sprinkles on the cone itself (Lekker! Tasty!).

I got coffee flavored ice cream and Marco got two scoops: yoghurt and lemon meringue pie. Mine was great and hit the spot. Marco liked his as well, although he said the lemon meringue pie flavor could have been stronger.

Ijskabinet does not have a working website, but they do have an Instagram page. I get the impression that the flavors change day by day, so you just need to walk in and see what they have. There is ample seating outside because it is right next to the statue of Johan de Witt which has nice seating opportunities at its base.

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Overlooking the Hofvijver (Or: A relaxing place to be)

Posted on July 19, 2024 by Niki

Here’s a photo I took of the Hofvijver last weekend:

I suspect the area was crowded today. Our summer is apparently two days long: today and tomorrow the temperature is around 28C/82F, before the temperature drops back down to 21C/69F on Sunday.

Did you know there is a live webcam of the beach at Scheveningen available at strandweer.nu? (strandweer = beach weather). Of course the sea itself is still pretty cold, considering the summer hasn’t been overly warm, yet.

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Flowers in The Hague (Or: Anna Paulownastraat)

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Niki

Last week I was walking along Anna Paulownastraat, a street in The Hague not far from the Peace Palace (Wikipedia). I had to stop and take a picture of some of the flowers by one of the front doors. The color of the flower against the black door worked really well:

It’s also close to the Anna Paulownaplein (a plaza honoring Anna Paulowna, a former queen of the Netherlands). The plaza has a beautiful statue of her which I posted about back in 2019.

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Looking out over The Hague (Or: Binnenhof’s “uitkijktoren” now open)

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Niki

uitkijktoren = watchtower in English

Binnenhof’s uitkijktoren is now open. It is 28 meters (92 feet) tall, which gives you lovely views of both the city centre as well as the renovation work in the Binnenhof. Anyone can freely go up during the day:

I don’t know, maybe I will go up there at some point and get some good pictures for you. In the meantime, take a look at the pictures at this article in Dutch over at omroepwest.nl. There’s also an article in Dutch over at indebuurt.nl with a few more pictures.

149 steps up, 149 steps down…

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