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Rock climbing (Or: Display by Bever)

Posted on July 27, 2026 by Niki

A few weeks ago I was by Bever on the Grote Marktstraat, a store for outdoor recreation and outdoor sporting goods. They had a display up of a rock climber by the escalator you use to get up to the store:

As you can see they also had some other products on display as well. But I liked the use of the wire grid to give it the impression of a rock wall. (And yes, they do sell climbing equipment!)

I usually go to Bever to buy shoes, as their shoes are high quality. But most of the shoes are in the back area so you do have to wait for a salesperson to be available to help you, which can be a bit annoying at times. But it’s a nice store to shop at when you are looking for outdoor equipment.

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Watch Your Step (Or: The Most Deliciously Inconvenient Floor in Art History)

Posted on July 11, 2026 by Niki

Did you know a museum in Rotterdam spread 800 pounds of peanut butter on their floor and called it art?

Completely nuts: Dutch gallery covers floor in peanut butter to honour late artist from The Guardian. The artwork is to honor the late Dutch artist Wim T Schippers by creating a hexagonal floor installation called Pindakaasvloer (Peanut Butter Floor).

Photo taken by Rijnmond.nl at https://www.rijnmond.nl/nieuws/2219124/eerbetoon-in-depot-aan-wim-t-schippers-het-idee-is-het-kunstwerk-de-rest-is-pindakaas

Actually, it is a recreation of a work that Schippers already created, meaning that the world has already seen a peanut butter floor… Here’s a fun quote from The Guardian article: “When Pindakaasvloer was showcased at Utrecht’s Centraal Museum in 1997, it was vandalised by schoolchildren who covered it with chocolate sprinkles and slices of bread – recreating a popular Dutch childhood snack. Schippers was reportedly not dissatisfied with the result.”

He is also known as the voice of Ernie in Dutch Sesame Street. (Marco can always make me laugh when he pretends to be Bert and Ernie.) The best part was the voice actor that played Bert in Dutch Sesame Street, Paul Haenen, left a message in the obituary of De Volkskrant:

Image from De Volkskrant

This can be translated loosely as “Dear Ernie, you will remain, but you will never be the same. We had such a beautiful time. Your friend, Bert.” Although it loses something in the translation (and not just the rhyme of ‘zijn’ and ‘fijn’). Perhaps it is because you are supposed to hear ‘Wat hadden we het fijn’ in Bert’s voice.

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Spotted by HEMA (Or: Tompouce latte mix)

Posted on July 1, 2026 by Niki

I saw a new product by HEMA recently. Tompouce latte mix!

Tompouce is the Dutch dessert which is notoriously hard to eat (unless you cheat). Unfortunately, the latte mix only gets 3 stars. Two reviews say it doesn’t really taste like tompouce. Also of note, in the lower right of the image you have stroopwafel coffee syrup. Can it get any sweeter by HEMA? Nice ideas, but now I really want to brush my teeth!

Here’s the King’s Day version of tompouce with orange frosting instead of the traditional pink frosting:

I cheat by using a fork you scoop at the cream, and then when the structural integrity is gone I take off the top layer… but there are many ways to eat tompouce.

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Free for all (Or: Library cards and Dutch tv shows)

Posted on June 9, 2026 by Niki

Here is some random news of the week, for those in The Hague or in the Netherlands.

First, residents of The Hague will be able to secure a free library card starting in January 2027 (English article | Dutch article). The free tier will let you check out up to five books a year and use library computers and other online services for free. For 4 euros a month, you can borrow up to 5 items at the time, while for 6 euros a month you can borrow up to 20 items at a time. Fines for returning items late has also been permanently abolished (although in practice this they haven’t collected fines since 2023).

If you are learning Dutch and are based in the Netherlands, check out the Schatkamer (=Treasure room) website. This site recently launched and includes more than 700,000 television programs, documentaries, news clips, films, games shows, etc. from the Dutch institute Beeld & Geluid (=Image & Sound). These resources come from publicly funded channels like NPO, AVOTROS, VPRO and similar. For now, the resources can only be streamed online, although there are plans to allow downloading in the future. The archive was able to be opened due to a change in European law, which states that certain protected works can now be viewed online without permission of the author if there is no more commercial worth in the product (read = old things).

If you are in the Netherlands, here are some tips from Reddit about what to check out in the Schatkamer. Note: unfortunately you have to be in the Netherlands to watch the content.

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Tea and cookies (Or: By the hairdresser)

Posted on June 1, 2026 by Niki

Over the weekend I went to the hairdresser. It had been a while since the last appointment, so I was glad to finally get a chance to come in.

One of the nice things about the Netherlands is you always get asked if you want tea, coffee, water or similar when you go to the hairdresser. But this is the first time for me that it came in a real glass, on a serving tray, and with a complimentary cookie! (Well… complimentary… you definitely pay for it in the price, of course.)

It turned out to be a chocolate chip cookie. Tasty!

Marco and I also got offered tea and a cookie while shopping for a new couch a few years back. I don’t remember the US offering a service like this, although admittedly I mostly went to the budget hairdresser. I always got a haircut at Supercuts for $10! As you can tell by the price, that was a while ago…

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Impulse buys (Or: Bubble gum flavored corn puffs, anyone?)

Posted on May 25, 2026 by Niki

Spotted at the Amazing Oriental earlier today:

Pizza was the most normal option, but there was also raspberry (red puffs) and bubble gum (blue puffs). Other flavors on the website include cheese, paprika and sour cream & onion. Although I should also let you know that bubble gum and raspberry plastic windows were slightly “tinted” to their respective colors, so it could be that the color of the corn puff wasn’t as vibrant once you opened it. But Marco and I didn’t buy a bag, so we will never know…

Normally I would call these cheese curls, but considering the flavors I hope not all of them have cheese!

Note also that most of the store is a fairly normal Asian store, unlike Xenos which always has wacky food and drinks. Here’s a link to my blog’s Xenos tag so you can see what I mean.

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Cheesecake Company expansion (Or: Double the sweetness)

Posted on May 10, 2026 by Niki

Roger recently snapped a photo of the Cheesecake Company‘s expansion:

It’s nice to see that they were able to expand the store, as didn’t have as much seating area in the previous setup.

They are on Torenstraat, across the street from the Grote Kerk (church). In case you’re wondering, this was the company that provided Marco and I’s wedding cakes. We kept it simple. The two flavors were strawberry and cappuccino (or maybe it was chocolate cappuccino, I’m not sure anymore. Whatever it was, it was delicious!).

In other news:

  • The Europa Experience is now open on the Grote Marktstraat where MediaMarkt was perviously located (just off the main shopping area, so prime real estate really)
  • BlowUp Jubilee returns on Friday, May 22 with inflatable artwork found outside around The Hague’s city centre. See my 2024 post about it.
  • Medi-Market opened on Spuistraat 7. It’s a discount drugstore (skincare, shampoo, over the counter medication, etc.), apparently even cheaper than the discount drugstores we already have.
  • The Japan & Korean Food Festival will be at Zuiderpark from Friday, May 22 through Monday, May 25
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One of my latest favorite things (Or: Steamed buns from the Asian store)

Posted on April 29, 2026 by Niki

Marco purchased these frozen buns from the local Asian store, Amazing Oriental:

The inside was chicken with scallion onions. They don’t look like much, but they are quite tasty if you like bread, since the outside was more like a crunchy bread than the soft bao bun that I am used to. It was a nice change of texture. I will definitely be buying these again!

Lately I’ve been going through my illustrated copies of Harry Potter, starting over with book 1. These are the illustrated versions by Jim Kay, with the first five out so far.

In honor of that, here’s a news article for the other book lovers out there: Places in The Hague for book lovers!

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100th anniversary (Or: Bijenkorf in The Hague)

Posted on April 7, 2026 by Niki

Bijenkorf in The Hague celebrated its 100th anniversary over the weekend. Marco took a lovely picture of the decorations on the outside:

Of course the decorations are in yellow and green, the colors of The Hague flag.

And because I think they are awesome, here’s a look at some of the stained glass inside the staircases. One great reason to skip the elevator:

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Rylee’s Sandwich Club (Or: A new lunch place by Holland Spoor)

Posted on March 26, 2026 by Niki

A few weeks ago Marco and I went to Rylee’s for lunch. I saw it listed on indebuurt.nl and just had to go. It was delicious!

Marco and I split a garlic steak sandwich (pictured above). I probably could have taken a better picture, but trust me, it was delicious. The brioche baguette was a definite highlight.

Marco ordered an iced mango matcha, while I had an iced mocha frappuccino.

For whatever reason, I haven’t had an iced mocha frappuccino in years. I was practically dancing in my chair!

We then split a large chocolate cookie as dessert, although I don’t have a picture of that.

I can definitely recommend Rylee’s if you want a quick, easy sandwich or coffee for lunch and you are in the area. They don’t have the menu available on their website yet, so you can check out sites like Uber Eats to see what they offer.

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