In the last week I’ve seen various holiday decorations. It seems a bit early but Bijenkorf, a store, was busy putting up their winter lights:
(Here’s what Bijenkorf’s lights looked like last year.)
And here are some Halloween decorations:
Haven’t seen any Thanksgiving decorations yet…
Near Central Station they are currently working on revamping a new building. This of course means half of the path being blocked off and unusable to commuters and locals for months. Of course, I’m exaggerating a little bit. Of course, they do provide little windows of sorts to see what its going on on the other side…
The words above the image say “Curious? Take a quick peek behind the walls!”
Of course, I did not take a picture of what was actually behind the wall, but I am sure you can guess what it looked like. 🙂
A few days ago I came across another opportunity to do a sand-related post! The Hague has been celebrating Prinsjesdag this summer. One way they have been doing this is by creating a temporary sand art tourist attraction (read more in Dutch). This is quite similar to the photos I was able to grab in 2010 while here on vacation.
This year there were three sculptures done:
a sculpture capturing the arrival (“aankomst”) of William I in Scheveningen in 1813.
a sculpture of Willem I, with the older look on the left and a slightly more modern full body view on the right
sand sculpture about Prinsjesdag 2014, with the golden carriage in the front and the modern skyline of The Hague behind (words below are “200 jaar koninkrijk” or a celebration of the Netherlands being a kingdom for 200 years).
a sideways look at all three sculptures together
It’s not too much longer before the addition to De Passage is open… That is a shopping area that connects a few important shopping streets together. It’s been quite annoying to have it under construction as of late, since that meant having to walk a detour to get where you needed to go.
But as of 18 September, it will be open again! Above you can see someone hard at work on the finishing touches. In the distance is De Bijenkorf (a retail store). I also have a lovely image of De Bijenkorf at Christmas time.
A month after Marco, Roger also turns 40. We celebrated the event by going to Paraplu in The Hague – the first time for me. As usual, I had the kipsaté (chicken on a skewer with peanut sauce). Yum! Also the first time I ever had kroepoek (the white disks) paired with peanuts and peanut shavings directly on top.
As a surprise, a family member had ordered a birthday dessert for Roger (and the table). Quite spectacular:
Good times en lekker eten!
Sorry I have not posted much lately – I’ve been a bit under the weather (though if you happen to be either of my parents reading this, I’m fine. Marco takes good care of me ;p).
But anyway — here’s a picture of a front yard somewhere in The Hague! I can’t even remember where I was anymore, as I took it a few months ago.
Last month Marco and I were walking past city hall (probably on the way to get coffee at Lebkov) when we spotted something new.
A seal near the entrance to The Hague’s city hall. But when we walked past it yesterday night, it was already gone. All that was left was a pattern of studs that had held up the seal. Did it fall? Was it taken down? Stolen? Who knows…
A few weeks ago I went on a tour of The Hague which was organized by Gilde Den Haag’s SamenSpraak program. It was pretty cool – I think we hit about 10-12 spots in The Hague which weren’t that well known. Here are some random pictures from the gardens:
A bit chaotic, but a pretty garden none the less.
This sort of reminds me of a typical American background (well, typical for those who like to do some landscaping).
A cool tree – though to me it looks more like an old man who is having trouble staying upright. Or me on a wild hair day…
The construction smack in the middle of The Hague’s centrum area is progressing nicely – except that it’s annoying as heck when you have to get from point A to point B. But its perhaps a bit better now.
Marks & Spencer is the white building in the background, for random reference.
They have finished one half of the road (Bijenkorf, Albert Heijn and Hema are on the left). As you can see the right side of the road is now blocked off.
Progress is not without causalities, of course. They are almost ready to start work on the next part of this street, Grote Markt, so the flower kiosk had to be permanently removed. As the story goes, it doesn’t fit with the “image” that the city wants to give after the construction is done. If you read Dutch you can check out this article (though there’s a few images to give you the general idea even if you do not speak Dutch). Bijenkorf is in the back of the first linked picture, to give you an idea of where the construction is heading.
This past weekend the weather was quite beautiful in The Hague – 15/16C or around 60F. Yesterday Marco and I went for a short walk in the city, past the restaurants which seem to have exploded overnight in terms of outdoor seating, the Grote Kerk (below) and around the Buitenhof before heading back to the Grote Markt street to finish up our grocery shopping at Albert Heijn and charge my OV-chip card – something I do weekly thanks to needing the tram to get to work.
Here is one of the photos I took:
Grote Ker, Den Haag
Beautiful blue skies. Good times! And how nice for it to actually happen over the weekend for a change.
Life in the Hague 