Culture

PostNL (Or: The fun of trying to get a package delivered)

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Niki

Earlier in the month I requested a new passport from the American consulate. Not because my old passport was expired (I had another 4 years) but because I wanted to change my last name to my married name. Yay!
I must say that the process definitely seemed confusing at first. Of course, you need an official copy of the marriage certificate as evidence that you are married, which you can request from city hall. But when I received the marriage certificate, it said that my last name after marriage was still my maiden name. It turns out that in the Netherlands your last name is still your maiden name, but you can use a different last name in certain circumstances. You need to tell city hall what your preferred last name is and then any organization which gets your data from city hall’s records will use it unofficially (Den Haag article).

But since I got married a few years back, this information slipped my mind. So imagine my shock when I received the marriage certificate and it said that my last name was still my maiden name even after getting married. What! But after speaking with the American consulate it seems they are quite used to this – just send the information, they said.

Continue reading →

Categories: Culture, Daily Dutch living | Tags: PostNL | 3 Comments

Remembrance (Or: Flowers by statues at Rabbijn Maarsenplein)

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Niki

Recently Marco and I explored the neighborhood (Rabbijn Maarseplein) just outside of Spui/Grote Markt, past Hema. I came across a statue of a woman:

I am not sure why the flowers are there, but I suspect it has something to do with World War II. There is also a nearby monument to Jewish children who perished due to the war. Amsterdam’s public transportation was recently stopped for one minute to remember the February 1941 strike in protest of the prosecution of Jews (Dutch | English).

But I am actually not finding much about the statue of the woman online. Does anyone know anything further?

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: Dutch history, Statues | 3 Comments

The Hague’s newest addition (Or: A statue of “Haagse Harry”)

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Niki

Marco and I just visited the statue of Haagse Harry (Dutch wikipedia) which was unveiled earlier tonight. The statue can be found above the Grote Markt tram tunnel.

Who is Haagse Harry? A character in a Dutch comic strip who lives in The Hague and speaks The Hague dialect (plat Haags). Here’s an article about the unveiling of the statue (English | Dutch). The author, Marnix Rueb, passed away in 2014. His family used the prize money from a posthumous award, The Hague Culture award, to finance the statue.

If you want to see an example of the Haagse dialect, you can check out this dictionary (a random Google link). The news article about the statue’s unveiling was also written in the dialect. They also translated a good portion of denhaag.nl into Haags in a mirror site (though I don’t know how long that link will work).

There was a contest to determine what the text on the t-shirt would say. It ended up being “Kap Nâh!! Lekker belangrijk”.”Kap Nâh” is “hou op”, or in English “Stop it”. It’s also the name of the first album of strips released. “Lekker belangrijk” is “very important”, but said sarcastically.

And of course, here’s a view from behind. Typically Dutch…

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: Statues | Leave a comment

How to “gourmetten”, Dutch style (Or: New Year’s Eve 2015)

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Niki

A lot of Dutch have a New Year’s Eve tradition of dusting off their gourmetten sets to grill up mini meats, fish and vegetables, similar to the New Year’s tradition of consuming oliebollen. I’ve written about it a few times, but here’s a look at how it went this year.

First we start with a clean set. This set in particular is good for 3-4 people and has 8 pans underneath for extra grilling potential:

Here is a look at the underside so you can see the pans:

And a look at the meat we grilled up:

Dutch supermarkets sell a lot of gourmet mini sets with items that are pre-cut and otherwise packaged in small containers (meats, sauces, peppers, onions and similar). They are frequently sold as “buy 2, get 1 free”.

The gourmet set in action:

And the most awesome thing ever? Grilled pineapple at the bottom (which I have never had until Marco and I went to Rodizio).

And also underneath – shoarma and mushrooms. Yum. Not shown – bread with a choice of garlic butter, aioli and sweet paprika sauce.

Until next year!

Categories: Culture, Food, Holidays | Tags: Gourmetten, New Year's Eve | 2 Comments

Undelivered letters from the 17th century (Or: Treasure in The Hague)

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Niki

A news story from last week: thousands of unread mail from the 17th century were found recently in The Hague, some letters still unopened and unread. (Dutch news link || English news link). A museum in The Hague has had them since 1926 but they have only recently been studied.

Undelivered letters - Hague museum for Communication

Photograph: Hague Museum for Communication

With letters from aristocrats, spies, merchants and more, the collection is a wonderful look at the Netherlands as it existed back in the 17th century. Most news articles report about a letter which was delivered to a man and returned unopened – likely he suspected that it contained news that he was the father of an unwanted child.

It’ll be interesting to see if and when the letters would be digitized – there are bound to be many interesting reads. Also interesting: the 600 pieces that are still sealed can be read without opening them at all – that’s modern day technology for you!

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Leave a comment

Dutch painting trivia (Or: Next to ‘Girl with a pearl earring’)

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Niki

I am sure a lot of you know the painting ‘Girl with a pearl earring’ in The Hague, painted by Vermeer.

But do you know what painting is next to it in the room?

It’s a head scratcher.

‘Mother combing her child’s hair’. Not too noteworthy, right?

Except she is not holding a comb.

The sub title is ‘Hunting for Lice’.

Yep.

I wonder if that was deliberate to keep the line moving after you study the Girl with a pearl earring. Though the painting is beautiful in its own right.

Categories: Culture | Tags: Art | Leave a comment

Football (Or: Police and ADO Den Haag fans square off this Saturday)

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Niki

Quick. Name one thing you do NOT mess with in the Netherlands.

…if you guessed football you would be correct.

In most if not all European countries, football is the sport. Fans eat, sleep and breathe football. Sometimes viewing multiple games on multiple devices (television, smart phone, tablet…) at the same time. It is a way of life.

Unfortunately you can expect issues if you try to get in the way of that. Even if you’re the police. The police have been striking at various times over the least few months. I wrote about it back in May when 1,500 police officers protested around the Binnenhof. Of course it makes sense – they just want better pay. It’s not that much different from the farmers striking in Belgium and France by driving really slow on highways and obstructing traffic.

But, again… it’s football. You just do not mess with football, people. Someone forgot to tell the police that. Most of the opening games for the Eredivisie are postponed due to police planning to strike during the scheduled game times – police actions which threaten not just ADO Den Haag’s game but also other games across the country this weekend. (Note: Dutch police threatened to strike during the opening days of the Tour de France in Utrecht, but that did not go through.)

Now ADO fans have a plan of their own. ‘Wij geen wedstrijd, hun geen staking‘ which translates to “No game for us? No strike for them.” The plan is to have as many people as possible meet at the Plein in The Hague at the scheduled time of the game. A large group of people would require a similarly large police presence, which means that at least some of the police cannot strike during their planned strike time. It is an interesting tactic if you think about it!

From Volkskrant.nl (linked above, Dutch article)

Categories: Culture, Sports, The Hague | Tags: ADO Den Haag, Football | Leave a comment

A suitcase of WWII letters (Or: Found in The Hague)

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Niki

Recently a suitcase full of WWII letters were found in the French restaurant Walter Benedict in The Hague. (Article: in English | in het Nederlands). These letters were uncovered during a renovation and were written by Israel Bachrach, a Jew living in The Hague. He wrote to both his mother and his non-Jewish girlfriend about how horrible it was to live in a German-occupied city.

The Facebook page for the restaurant talks about how the letters were discovered. In Dutch: “Tijdens het strippen van het plafond in het achterhuis waar nu de keuken gevestigd is vielen oude brieven met daarin foto’s en kleding naar beneden. Een dag voor het strippen hadden we al vraagtekens bij de ruimte waarin onze keuken geïnstalleerd zou moeten gaan worden. Dus zijn we naar het gemeente archief gegaan om de oude bouwtekeningen van het pand te bekijken. We stuitten op een bouwtekening uit juli 1941 waarop duidelijk wordt dat een extra vloer in het achterhuis is geplaatst waardoor een geheime ruimte tussen de vloeren ontstond.”

In short – the restaurant was working on the renovations for the kitchen. They had questions about the room (dimensions or similar) and decided to go to the city hall’s archive to ask for the building’s blueprints. They were able to find blueprints from July 1941 which made it clear that there was an extra floor in the room (and thus a space in between the two floors to hide items). This is where the letters were found.

Walter Benedict was able to escape in September 1942 to Switzerland (via Belgium) though there were a few close calls where he was almost caught – but he made it out. After the war he returned to The Hague and opened a bookstore at the spot that would later be occupied by the French restaurant.

Jewish letters unearthed at restaurant in The Hague

Picture taken from https://www.facebook.com/WalterBenedictDenneweg

Categories: Culture | Tags: Dutch history | Leave a comment

In search of baking soda (Or: Zuiveringszout)

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Niki

Yesterday Marco made soft baked pretzels. The recipe called for baking soda; you dip the pretzels in it before they are put in to bake. We knew that you could get baking soda at the local expat store (Kelly’s) but I was curious to see if it was available at any Dutch stores. While doing some Google searches I came across this article from Kiwidutch. I found out that baking soda is zuiveringszout in Dutch and it is more likely to be found at drug stores rather than the local grocery store. Oddly it is cheaper as an import item than at the local Dutch store…

On the way to the expat store we came across an interesting metal sculpture depicting two bicyclists in the rain (note the umbrellas).

Dutch metal sculpture of bikers with umbrellas

click for a larger size

I just noticed the bicycle shop across the street (Top bikes), too. How Dutch!

Categories: Culture, Food | Tags: Bikes, Sculptures | 4 Comments

Green and yellow (Or: Artwork of The Hague)

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Niki

Here is a picture of random art from The Hague:

It is green and yellow, to represent the colors of The Hague (also the colors of The Hague’s flag). Above is a piece of art in a Dutch school.

Of all random things to do on a Thursday night, I am currently watching an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Darmok episode to be exact. A good episode to see Patrick Stewart acting. 😉

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: Art | Leave a comment