Holidays

Holidays at the Grote Markt (Or: Colorful decorations)

Posted on November 15, 2016 by Niki

Last week I took some photos of the Christmas trees by the Bijenkorf (a department store). This week I was able to take a few photos of the lights along the Grote Markt street:

christmas-lights-at-bijenkorf-the-hague-2016

The new tear-shaped lights the city put in earlier this year look really nice!

Lights by the entrance:

christmas-lights-at-bijenkorf-entrance-the-hague-2016

And a look at the lights in the other direction, towards the movie theater and Primark:

christmas-lights-at-the-grote-markt-the-hague-2016

Oh, and today a coworker brought in 12 oliebollen (sorta doughnut-y pastry that is usually made with raisins inside and covered in powdered sugar). They started selling those on November 1st… It is always something to look forward to!

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: Bijenkorf, Christmas, Desserts, Oliebollen | Leave a comment

Here we go (Or: Christmas at Bijenkorf)

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Niki

Last week Bijenkorf (an upscale department store) put up their Christmas decorations. See for yourself:

They also put the lights up outside of the building (here is a photo from 2013).

In other news – I finally ordered a new computer! As you can see from this photo of a library book, I am switching from PC to Mac.

"Van PC naar Mac" library book
If you ignore that one semester in college using a Mac and QuarkXPress for a student job, it will be my first time using a Mac. And yes, it might be geeky but the book has been helpful explaining the differences in keys and in the dock at the bottom of the screen where all the program icons can be found.

Although I have a few more weeks to wait, the computer can’t come soon enough. I wanted to write this blog post on my netbook, but Chrome errored when I tried to open it. I restarted my computer but it has been stuck on a blue screen which says “getting Windows ready – don’t turn off your computer”. For a half hour. Heh…

Update: it came back after 45 minutes, although Chrome is still erroring. Oh well! That is a problem for another day.

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: Bijenkorf, Christmas | Leave a comment

Enjoy these with coffee (Or: Halloween themed cookies)

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Niki

Halloween themed cookies, made by Marco. Pumpkins, ghosts and skulls. And the skulls were spicy! A bit of haberno powder, while the pumpkins were made of marzipan.

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: Desserts, Halloween | 1 Comment

Palace Garden (Or: Enjoying a day off)

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Niki

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Thursday was a holiday here in the Netherlands – Ascension Day (40 days after Easter). It was also Liberation Day (Dutch | English). For most people, that is only an official holiday every 5 years (2015, 2020, …) so most people had the day off because of Ascension Day.

But the reason Thursday was so great was the weather – 18c, or low 60s. A great day of sun that almost everyone got to enjoy. Since Friday we’ve been in the 70s.

Marco and I went to Hometown Coffee where I again ordered my iced mocha coffee. Yum! Marco got a blended cappuccino. Due to the good weather we decided to take a walk. Somewhere along the way we decided to go to the Palace Garden (Paleistuin in Dutch) where we found a bench to soak up some sun and watch the kids play on the playground.

And that’s the thing – good weather is precious here in the Netherlands and something to enjoy. The city comes alive in this time, with the outdoor cafés crowded, every table in the sun taken. It’s a great time!

(And here is a shoutout to my mom on this Mother’s Day!)

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: Cafes, Hometown coffee, Tourist attraction | Leave a comment

Rain rain go away (Or: Life I Live festival in The Hague)

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Niki

King’s day was on Wednesday this year, which meant that the Life I Live festival took place the night before. In short, the night before the holiday the center of the city closes down for the festival, with various music stages set up around the area. Most of the major genres are represented – jazz, rock, blues, covers and more.

Problem is the weather was pretty horrible, especially later in the night. It was also apparently the coldest festival ever. So it was pretty hard to stay out longer than an hour!

Here is a look at two of the street art pieces that were created during the festival from scratch. Street art #1:

Street art #2:

Street art #2, another angle:

Here’s a look at the newly installed lights on the Grote Markt. They alternatively glowed orange …

and the colors of the Dutch flag:

You can also see photos from the 2013 Queen’s night, which has better photos of the stage and the actual event itself.

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: Koningsdag, Life I Live festival, Music | Leave a comment

Pim café in The Hague (Or: Over on Wagenstraat)

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Niki

For Valentine’s day, Marco and I visited Pim, a café on Wagenstraat. They have a “breakfast for 2” on their menu which I thought might be interesting to try out. While they have another café on Prins Hendrikstraat, the one on Wagenstraat has only been open since September.

The ambiance was pretty nice, beginning with the flowers on the table:

There was also a foosball table hanging on the wall:

And here is a look at the breakfast for two. Two large croissants, four pieces of brown bread, four pieces of white bread, orange juice, coffee, hummus and a few vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, paprika).

The blue plate was awesome…

As you can see below, there was also cheese, ham and two cooked eggs. I am not a fan of eggs in general, so luckily Marco was willing to eat mine as well.

But definitely a nice breakfast – very filling!

Categories: Food, Holidays, Marco&Niki | Tags: Breakfast, Cafes, Pim, Valentine's Day | 4 Comments

Local fireworks in The Hague (Or: 2015 New Year’s celebrations)

Posted on January 3, 2016 by Niki

Marco, Roger and I went outside on New Year’s Eve this year to see the fireworks being shot off this year. Here are some of the photos I took, although in some cases they are a bit blurry.

A photo of the fireworks sparking up as someone stirred up the fire with a stick:

Christmas trees usually end up in most fires as you can see in this family photo:

Random look at ground fireworks:

Random look at fireworks from a distance:

Someone was stupid enough to try and drive their car over a fire in the middle of the road. They drove through quickly and then got out to inspect the damage. Admittedly those streets are narrow and it would be almost impossible to turn around.

Building a fire (early on in the evening):

Here’s a look at a the remnants of the fireworks surrounding a bike, the day after:

Until next year’s festivities!

Categories: Holidays | Tags: Fireworks, New Year's Eve | Leave a comment

2015 holiday decorations in The Hague (Or: ‘t Goude Hooft)

Posted on January 2, 2016 by Niki

Earlier in the month I was walking around the Grote Kerk area in The Hague when I came across holiday decorations at one of The Hague’s more popular restaurants, ‘t Goude Hooft. (Full disclosure: I’ve never been to this restaurant. I only know it as the restaurant where all of the outside seats face outwards, to view the trams and people walking past. It’s slightly eerie.)

You know you’re in The Hague (or the Netherlands in general) when you have advertisements at the bottom of the photo imploring bicyclists keep the entrance to buildings free/accessible. It is quite crowded in that area.

Categories: Food, Holidays, The Hague | Tags: 't goude hooft, Christmas, Restaurants | 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

New Year’s Eve (Or: Waiting in line for oliebollen)

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Niki

Similar to a post I did last year – here’s a look at the line of people waiting for oliebollen on New Year’s Eve. Oliebollen is a sort of doughnut covered in powdered sugar.

Waiting for Godot (and oliebollen)

And be a look at the stand itself (voted #1 this year in The Hague):

This was around 12pm – Marco said the line was about twice as long (by the library) around 2pm. Crazy. This year they even had a street organ playing music for those waiting, which was a nice touch.

Fine jaarwisseling! Happy New Year!

Categories: Food, Holidays, News, The Hague | Tags: New Year's Eve, Oliebollen | 3 Comments