Culture

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).

Categories: Culture, Holidays | Tags: Koningsdag, Life I Live festival | Leave a comment

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!

Categories: Culture, Holidays | Tags: HEMA, Koningsdag, Life I Live festival, Xenos | Leave a comment

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.

Categories: Culture, Utrecht | Tags: Canals | Leave a comment

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.

The Hague’s transportation company HTM said they would temporarily scale back the schedule for most buses and trams due to a lack of workers. (article in Dutch at omroepwest.nl). The schedule will be adjusted from next month through at least the fall.
Amsterdam’s transportation company GVB said they would run less buses and trams in the old city centre due to aging infrastructure and environmental concerns last year. This week they will meet to discuss the proposal. Current plans will make Amsterdam public transport less attractive: Rover, SME Assoc. from nltimes.nl.
But on the flip side of that you have NS, the largest transportation company in the Netherlands for domestic and international trains. Dutch railway NS promises major improvements in 2025 with 1,600 more trains weekly, also from nltimes.nl. These changes would take effect in the 2025 train schedule which starts this December. Their campaign to hire more workers seems to be going quite well.

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…!

Categories: Culture, Transportation | Tags: Art, Centrum, Statues | Leave a comment

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!

Categories: Culture, Rijswijk | Tags: Statues | Leave a comment

Hmmmmm (Or: Snack machine by Amazing Oriental)

Posted on December 11, 2023 by Niki

Something interesting that I spotted in the Amazing Oriental on the Grote Marktstraat – a hot snack machine. The machine is sometimes called an automatiek (English Wikipedia).

For the moment the only option looks to be a bag of 10 mini spring rolls for €1.60. You can either pay with coins – exact change only – or with your debit card. Here’s hoping they start offering a bit more variety!

Categories: Culture, Everyday purchases, Food | Tags: Amazing Oriental | 3 Comments

A crossing between a croissant and tompouce (Or: Crompouce)

Posted on November 6, 2023 by Niki

I was by Albert Heijn recently and I spotted a crompouce. What is a crompouce, you ask? It’s a cross between a croissant and a tompouce (Wikipedia). The latter is a Dutch/Belgium treat that is horribly difficult to eat. I subscribe to the method where you eat the cream in the middle with your fork, and when the structural integrity starts failing you start eating the top of it as well.

And now we have crompouces…

It’s basically a croissant with cream in the middle and the tompouce icing on top. I haven’t had one yet. I might need to have my dentist on speed dial if I try it, though.

Categories: Culture, Everyday purchases, Food | Tags: Albert Heijn | Leave a comment

Remnant of the past (Or: Veteran’s Day, 2023)

Posted on June 25, 2023 by Niki

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day in the Netherlands, held every year on the last Saturday in June.

Veterans Day attracts 90,000 visitors in The Hague from nltimes.nl, which has some nice photos of the event.

Here is a picture that I took of a medical vehicle. I wasn’t able to get any good pictures of the parade, unfortunately. I was just passing through and most of the city centre had crowds 10 man deep. But the marching bands I could hear sounded great.

In other Dutch news: ‘It’s every woman, it’s us’: Rotterdam falls for British statue of ordinary black woman from theguardian.com. It is a pretty interesting statue. And I love the backdrop of Rotterdam’s Centraal train station in the photo.

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: Centrum, Statues | 2 Comments

Eye catching (Or: BlowUp Art in The Hague)

Posted on June 8, 2023 by Niki

This past May The Hague was host to an art festival called BlowUp Art. The festival was an initiative of Pulchri Studio. I previously wrote a blog post about the sculptures they had placed on the Lange Voorhout.

Here is a look at one of the six creations featured in the BlowUp Art festival:

This piece is called “Crested” and it was created by Steven Messam.

In other news, the Netherlands will get to experience its first mini heat wave this weekend! Temperatures are expected to be around 30C or 85F here in The Hague. Time to find my sunscreen…

Dit weekend zomerse temperaturen: meer openbaar vervoer naar stranden from nos.nl. Translated: This weekend summer tempatures: more public transportation to beaches. For instance, HTM here in The Hague will be running the Strandexpress tram (=beach express), with limited stops between the Holland Spoor train station, Centraal Station, Madurodam and the beach. And of course it won’t be enough as everyone will descend on the beach with their car, bike or feet!

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: Art, Summer, Weather | 2 Comments

Flags at half mast (Or: Remembrance Day and Liberation Day in the Netherlands)

Posted on May 7, 2023 by Niki

A few days ago I found myself near the Peace Palace in The Hague. This was on 4 May, otherwise known as Nationale Dodenherdenking or National Remembrance of the Dead day. You have a few monuments to the war near the Peace Palace. One of them is The Hague Resistance and Liberation Memorial which commemorates those who lost their lives in The Netherlands during WWII. Here is the official website for the Memorial (in Dutch).

And on 5 May the Netherlands celebrates Liberation Day, which in comparison to the more somber Remembrance Day is a day for festivals and celebrating one’s freedom. A lot of cities hold festivals on 5 May.

Pictures from the festival in The Hague (at the Malieveld), in Dutch at indebuurt.nl.

And because I couldn’t not take a photo of it, here is an impressive looking tree which is also near the Peace Palace. It is huge! I would love to sit under its shade and read a book for a while.

Categories: Culture, Holidays, The Hague | Leave a comment