Culture

13678 characters of Boredom *yawn* (Or: Exhibition at The Hague Library)

Posted on July 24, 2024 by Niki

The Hague’s main library has an exhibition entitled “13678 characters of Boredom *yawn*” (scroll down for English). It’s actually pretty cool, if you’re into word searches.

Ten writers created two sentences each, in a sort of “chain writing” exercise where each sentence was related to the one that came before it. The words found in those 20 sentences can be found in the giant word search in the library.

I didn’t have any time to stop and work on it when I spotted it over the weekend, but I’ll probably go back and see if there are any words left.

The other side of the board was also a giant word search, as you can see below:

The closing event is on 18 September, so you have some time between now and then to find some words. On that day the entire poem will be revealed. Happy hunting!

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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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Good weather is coming (Or: Ice cream art)

Posted on June 23, 2024 by Niki

In celebration of the good weather that is finally coming this week (nltimes.nl in English), here is a piece of art not far from the Florencia ice cream (and coffee) shop.

And here is a close up of the art:

In other news, yesterday was Vlaggetjesdag (Flag Day) in Scheveningen. This is the first day of the year where the new batch of haring can be eaten in the Netherlands. Vlaggetjesdag is always held on the third Saturday in June. See also omroepwest.nl’s article in Dutch. There’s also the article Eating herring in the Netherlands: all you need to know about the ‘Hollandse Nieuwe’ from dutchreview.nl if you want to know more.

To be clear: this is one Dutch tradition I haven’t tried yet, and I’m not sure I ever will. But others definitely enjoy it and say it is very tasty.

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BlowUp Art The Hague (Or: Up close and personal)

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Niki

Today Marco and I went to the Hofvijver to check out BlowUp Art The Hague. Note: tomorrow is the last day to see it! This time we went on the platform itself, which was an experience to say the least. The walkway area leading to the platform is quite wobbly. The best way to describe it is to say it is like walking on a swing bridge as it sways in all directions, especially if you choose a less than straight path. If you walk straight forward it doesn’t move around as much.

You can get some great pictures here with the Binnenhof in the background. The Binnenhof is the parliamentary building for the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives). The eggs were pretty cool because they are reflective so you can get some interesting photos, especially if you come as a group. The other thing to notice is the tower at the far left of the Binnenhof building – that is normally the office of the prime minister, when the Binnenhof isn’t in the middle of a 5-year renovation.

I mentioned the tower being the office of the prime minister because this pink tower is actually a homage to it.

There is also one colorful egg which will end up in a lot of people’s photos for sure.

Finally, here’s a look at the platform itself to show that you are actually on top of the water.

I think I’ll miss this art installation. When it first arrived it didn’t look like much, but not all of the blow up art was in place yet. It was also more fun than I expected to walk on the platform, although I was glad to get back on stable ground after!

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BlowUp Art The Hague (Or: 2024 edition)

Posted on May 7, 2024 by Niki

The 2024 edition of BlowUp art has arrived in The Hague and is available through 2 June. This time the focus is around the Hofvijver area. Here is a look at some of the artwork currently on display:

The yellow pot is from the theme “larger than life”. The pink tower is a play on the Torentje or “little tower” that the Dutch Prime minister would sit at, just out of view behind the tree above. There’s even a Dutch Wikipedia page about it.

Here is a close up:

The floating garden near the pink tower is also part of the temporary art exhibition and was designed by second year students in the “Urban Green Development” program.

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Preparing for King’s Day 2024 (Or: Flags and tompouce)

Posted on April 26, 2024 by Niki

Tomorrow the Netherlands will celebrate King’s Day to mark the birthday of King Willem-Alexander.

Tonight is the Life I Live festival, with free podiums set up at Lange Voorhout, Kerkplein, Grote Markt and the Hofvijver. Here is a look who is playing at each podium. Alternatively you can now download an app for iOS or Google Play (under the name “Woov”).

Here are some of the things you can do tomorrow:

  • Visit the King’s Day carnival at Maliveld (Saturday is the last day)
  • Visit the King’s Day carnival at “De Fred”, or Frederik Hendriklaan, which runs through 5 May
  • NMNH Kingsday Festival at Zuiderpark (paid event)
  • The Hague’s Vrijmarkten. If you’re from the US this is equivalent to a garage sale, but held on a national level. It’s the one day of the year you’re allowed to sell your stuff outside, although you have to do it in certain streets of The Hague. Check denhaag.com for a list of streets where you are allowed to sell your crap–err, precious memories.
  • Eat tompouce. indebuurt.nl has a nice list of places where you can buy it. Since it is for King’s Day the top layer is orange instead of pink. I had a “double decker” tompouce yesterday from Plasman.
  • Geraniummarkt at the Lange Voorhout. That translates to “Geranium market”. Yes, for some reason it is tradition to buy geraniums on King’s Day.
  • King’s Day at the Grote Markt, at the Zwarte Ruiter bar. denhaag.com has the list of bands and the times they will be playing.

Lots of places have put out Dutch flags to mark the holiday. This photo was taken near Dozo, an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant (formerly known as Sumo, see also this blog post).

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King’s Day merch (Or: I hope you like the color orange?)

Posted on March 29, 2024 by Niki

King’s Day is a Dutch holiday on April 27. This year it falls on a Saturday. Annoying for those who don’t get the day off, as it isn’t standard practice in the Netherlands to give an adjacent day off if a holiday falls in the weekend. On the other hand, if the weathers good, you still have all day to party on Saturday.

Oh, and this means The Life I Live – a free music festival held the night before in The Hague’s city centre – falls on a Friday this year. The Hague government donated an extra €50,000 to the festival to keep it it around, on top of the already earmarked €400,000, as a one time (extra) donation. I can’t imagine The Hague or King’s Day without The Life I Live festival. Here are some photos I took back in 2022.

A lot of people dress up in orange for King’s Day (and some also dress up in orange for the festival the night before). Most Dutch stores take advantage of that by offering orange merchandise in the 4–6 weeks leading up to the event. Here is a look at the King’s Day offerings at Xenos:

I also saw some orange tompouce themed t-shirts being sold at Hema. Tompouce (English Wikipedia) is a pastry that is delicious, if extremely sweet and messy to eat. And of course it gets sold with orange frosting for King’s Day!

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Random internet activities (Or: The fish doorbell)

Posted on March 23, 2024 by Niki

Have you heard of the fish doorbell? (I think I posted about it at some point.)

There’s a canal in the Dutch city of Utrecht in the middle of the Netherlands. The canal is shared by boats and fish, with a boat lock that opens and closes as needed. But this is also the time of the year that the fish move upstream searching for places to spawn.

What do the fish do if the boat lock is closed? They wait.

What do they wait for? For you to press the doorbell of course!

If you see a fish on the live stream waiting at the door, you can push the doorbell. The page is at: https://visdeurbel.nl/en/the-fish-doorbell/. A bit further down on the page you see a live stream, probably full of murky water and no fish. On the right side there’s a doorbell. If you see a fish, you press the doorbell. This lets a human know they should check and open up the boat lock so the fish can pass through. (Note: if there are more than 950-999 viewers, you’ll see a YouTube stream instead with no doorbell, due to capacity issues.)

The fish doorbell news report – a YouTube channel with weekly news about what fish they saw in the last week and predictions for next week, with subtitles in English.

Nicest photos – a look at some of the nicest photos taken this year.

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Time of day (Or: Sundial by the Kneuterdijk Palace)

Posted on February 9, 2024 by Niki

A few weeks ago I was wandering around in The Hague and I came across a piece of art. A sundial, to be exact. This was behind the Kneuterdijk palace.

Here is a close up:

Kneuterdijk palace was built in 1716. The garden where the artwork can be found is in the back of the palace. The gate was open when I walked past, so I assume it is usually open during the day. You can read more about the palace at denhaag.com (in English).

In public transportation news – random, I know – it has been a busy week in the Netherlands.

Hopefully HTM can bring back their full schedule later this year. But I’m aware of how good I have it, considering trams currently run every 10 minutes. But I remember when it was every 7 minutes…!

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Hiding behind some houses (Or: Art in de Bogaard)

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Niki

In the nearby city of Rijswijk there’s a shopping area called Bogaard stadscentrum or “Bogaard city centre”. There’s a small indoor shopping area and lots of shops on the outside as well. The area had a bit of a downturn, especially when the Mall of the Netherlands opened, but there has been some work to restore it. Part of the plans including removing some of the shopping area to add more housing instead, which makes sense.

Here’s a look at an interesting piece of art on the way back to the tram stop:

Unfortunately I don’t have too many details about it. It is cute, though!

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