The Hague

Palace garden (Or: The first signs of spring)

Posted on April 14, 2024 by Niki

A few weeks ago I visited the Paleistuin (Palace Garden), not far from the city centre. See also Google Maps.

The sky was a lovely shade of blue:

It’s hard to imagine that this was taken in the Palace Garden, since there isn’t much open space without flowers in it. But if you take a picture at the right angle, it makes the garden look even larger.

There wasn’t too much color yet when I visited (see the photo below) but it was, as always, a peaceful place to walk around.

I did find some nice purple flowers though.

Maybe I will go back next week to see if even more flowers have started blooming. We have since had a few days of really good weather (including yesterday which was the first “no jacket” day of the year for me).

Did you know there is also a secret entrance to the Palace Garden? You ring the doorbell to get let in. During the day, at least. See also this news article in Dutch from indebuurt.nl.

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Pink camellias (Or: Randomly spotted)

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Niki

Last week I was walking back from Albert Heijn when I spotted some beautiful flowers. If Google Images reverse lookup is to be believed, it is a camellia flower.

And of course it wouldn’t be a picture in the Netherlands if there wasn’t a bike in it. Ha!

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Hrmmm (Or: A man and a bear walk down the street…)

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Niki

Imagine my confusion this weekend when I snapped this picture, taken on the street which connects The Hague’s Central Station with the city centre:

Either he is about to be eaten alive from behind or that is one big bear. Roger offered a good explanation though: the Kingsfair is now open at the nearby Malieveld. Kingsfair is the carnival to celebrate the upcoming King’s Day holiday on Saturday, April 27.

Hopefully the gentleman didn’t actually drop it on the way home. That thing looks like a dirt magnet!

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Tulips by the Spuiplein (Or: Beauty on a rainy day)

Posted on April 6, 2024 by Niki

Recently Marco took some pictures of the tulips by the Spuiplein. The tulips just appeared one day – before that the area was barren all winter!

It’s an appropriate topic considering we had one day of really, really good weather today. It was about 24C/75F. The winds shifted and came from Africa today. But only for one day.

And a look at the area in general:

Orange, pink and just a bit of yellow!

And a look at the raindrops stuck to the flowers:

In case you are interested, Spuiplein is in the middle of a renovation. The next stage will begin this fall. You can read more about it at projecten.denhaag.nl. The article is in Dutch but there are pictures and a Google translate option available.

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On horseback (Or: Statue of Willem the Silent)

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Niki

During the holiday weekend (a four day weekend!) I decided to take a picture of the equestrian statue of Willem the Silent outside of the Paleis Noordeinde. I was drawn by the color of the statue against the gray-white of the building behind it. Unfortunately the sun decided to mostly disappear at that moment.

Here is a Google Maps link on where to find the statue.

In other news:

New species of tiny geckos found in India named after Vincent van Gogh from nltimes.nl

King’s Day in The Hague from denhaag.com in English. This includes the King’s Fair (= carnival) at the Malieveld, opening this Friday and running through Saturday, April 27. There’s even a geranium market on Lange Voorhout on King’s Day!

Route of Tour de France Femmes announced from denhaag.com. The Tour de France femmes will be cycling through The Hague (and Rotterdam) on August 12 this year.

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Dutch flowers in St Peter’s Square (Or: A decades old tradition)

Posted on March 31, 2024 by Niki

Since 1985, the Netherlands has been sending thousands of flowers to the Vatican for Easter Mass. This year they will be sending over 20,000 flowers. Here’s a tweet of how it looks, although I am not sure if this is an arrangement from 2024 or from an earlier year.

The tradition in 1985 for Titus Brandsma’s beatification. See also: Dutch Flowers Back in St. Peter’s Square in Rome At Easter at seedworld.com. In case you’re wondering, no flowers were sent in 2020 due to the corona crisis. In 2021, even though there were no major gatherings allowed in Italy, roses were sent. That year they decorated the inside of St. Peter’s square with some roses also being sent to retirement homes in Italy. See also: Italy – An Avalanche of Roses to Celebrate Easter. Amusingly that comes from a Dutch government website which publishes agriculture news happening outside of the Netherlands (agroberichtenbuitenland.nl). How specific!

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Magnolias (Or: Spring trees in Huijgenspark)

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Niki

As a continuation to my last blog post, here is a look at some magnolias in another park in The Hague, this time Huijgenspark. You can read more about the area (in English) at DenHaag.com.

Here is a beautiful close up:

Gorgeous, right?

The area even has its own Little Free Library.

As you might expect, the bench behind it gets vandalized a lot. See also denhaagfm.nl (article in Dutch).

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Spring flowers (Or: Star magnolias in the Zeeheldenkwartier)

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Niki

The Zeeheldenkwartier is an area near the centre of The Hague, near Kelly’s Expat shopping. See also Google Maps. I recently took some photos of the star magnolia trees in the area:

You have to be quick with these – the trees have already started to lose some of their leaves. Here’s another look, with a monument to a politician, Hendrik Goeman Borgesius (English Wikipedia) in the foreground.

And finally, some very realistic looking graffiti:

See also this blog post about turtles in the same area, but in August.

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Bad news for tourists (Or: Construction by the Hofvijver)

Posted on March 17, 2024 by Niki

Okay, I am exaggerating a bit. But if you were thinking of getting a good picture of the flags at the Hofvijver here in The Hague, thank again. There is currently construction on the tram tracks in front of the area. And that’s ignoring the nearby construction which means the Binnenhof is closed until at least 2028 (dutchnews.nl).

In the meantime visitors can visit the Information centre binnenhof Renovation – see also denhaag.com in English. You can find the information centre at Plaats 22, not far from the Binnenhof (Google Maps).

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Statues and birds (Or: More signs of spring)

Posted on March 16, 2024 by Niki

While walking recently I came across a group of Egyptian geese (admittedly, I had to use Google Images to figure out what type of goose it was). See also Wikipedia in English.

And here are all of the young walking near the water of the Hofvijver:

And as a bonus, here is the Haags Jantje statue in the same area. He is pointing to where his father works, at the parliament (Binnenhof). The boy referenced died in 1299 at age 15. You can read more about him in English at expathollandinfo.nl.

Personally I really like his (temporary) spring outfit. in his left hand he has some of the yellow flowers. In his right hand he has a crocheted bird and he also wears a crown of crocheted birds. Someone definitely went to the trouble to dress him up for spring.

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