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Spotted at Bijenkorf (Or: 2022 Christmas tree)

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Niki

Here is a look at the Christmas tree at Bijenkorf’s department store this year:

And of course, I’m not that big a fan of heights (this Christmas tree is about 3-4 floors high), hence the railing in the middle. That was about the closest that I wanted to get when photographing it.

Bijenkorf’s Christmas tree in 2021 (not that different from this year’s really)

Bijenkorf’s Christmas tree in 2019

Bijenkorf’s Christmas tree in 2018

…and back in 2015, with more decorations than it has now. It looks like they have scaled back in recent years.

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It must be after Sinterklaas (Or: Lots and lots of oliebollen mix)

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Niki

I was recently at Albert Heijn doing some grocery shopping. I swear, you almost don’t need a calendar when you walk in there — you can easily tell it is after 5 December (Sinterklaas) because the first ingredients for making oliebollen (a donut-like treat frequently eaten on New Year’s Eve) have started to appear.

At the top of the display you have powdered sugar in the blue and white cans, oliebollen mix in the middle in the yellow and orange boxes, and whipped cream on the far right. Although they haven’t quite set up the tower of sugary goodness that they had last year. Yet.

I am also happy to report that my favorite Christmas cookies are back at Albert Heijn. I picked up a pack for home and a pack for my coworkers the first day they were stocked. It’s a nice large Christmas cookie (in the shape of a wreath) dipped in dark chocolate and covered in red and green sprinkles.

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Holiday lights at De Passage (Or: A place to shop at, a place to get warmer in)

Posted on December 5, 2022 by Niki

De Passage is an outdoor, covered shopping area in the city centre. There are no doors, but if you want to get a bit warmer you can head to the middle of it where the cold outside air almost doesn’t reach. Almost…

Here is a look at the holiday lights on top of one of the entrances. In the far distance down the hall you can just see the Christmas tree sticking out. They lit the tree lights for the first time on 1 December. It is definitely starting to feel like the holidays now.

Here is the store list for De Passage.

Categories: Holidays, Shopping, The Hague | Tags: | Leave a comment

World Cup 2022’s orange wave (Or: They even have Christmas ornaments)

Posted on December 3, 2022 by Niki

This year the World Cup (soccer for the Americans among us) is being held in Qatar. The Netherlands is playing the Unites States shortly for a place in the quarter finals. (If you’re wondering, my allegiance is for the Dutchies.)

Due to the summer heat, the tournament was moved from the summer to the winter for 2022 only. This of course creates the unique opportunity to buy Dutch football Christmas ornaments:

These are some of the items on sale over at Xenos on the Grote Marktstraat. A few orange Christmas balls, orange clogs and a lion dressed in orange holding a football. Decorate your Christmas tree to show your orange pride!

Not to be out done, you can also buy football shaped bread at Albert Heijn:

You didn’t believe me, did you? Yes, they have football shaped bread. (I will wait for my Christmas tree bread, thanks.)

Lastly, if you’re at a local bar you can get free bittenballen with every goal the Duchies score against the Americans:

If you are wondering what bitterballen are, check out English Wikipedia. It’s basically a fried meat snack. The meat inside is a meat paste. You want to get high quality bitterballen so that you know the meat inside is also (hopefully) high quality.

Ride the orange wave, everyone!

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Hema’s smoked sausage flavored beer (Or: Would you try it?)

Posted on December 1, 2022 by Niki

One thing Hema is famous for is their smoked sausage (rookworst). When we eat stamppot (English Wikipedia) we always pair it with sausage from Hema. It is tasty! We eat stamppot once a year; Marco’s mom always makes us a batch around February or March when the weather outside is nice and cold.

But now Hema has come out with rookworst flavored beer (5.3% alcohol). Would you want to try it?

It’s definitely an interesting concept, and a bit easier to understand than their tompouce flavored beer last year. Tompouce is a Dutch pastry – see also this English Wikipedia page if you need a refresher.

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Sinterklaas-themed window displays (Or: Spotted at Bijenkorf)

Posted on November 27, 2022 by Niki

Bijenkorf is a high-end department store comparable to Macy’s in the US. Every year they hang up some gorgeous holiday lights and they decorate their store front windows for Sinterklaas (5 December holiday) and Christmas. The lights went up in early November this year, even before we left for New Year City. Here’s a look at a few of their Sinterklaas themed windows.

You can tell it is Sinterklaas because the child in the middle is holding the staff of Sinterklaas. What’s a Sinterklaas party without fashionable clothes and lots of gifts? Speaking of which, if you want to make sure kids in The Hague and Amsterdam area have gifts to open on 5 December, consider donating to Sintvoorieder1 (official website in Dutch). During their latest toy drive they received about 47,000 gifts for 22,500 children which is just awesome. The link is from omroepwest.nl in Dutch.

Happy Sinterklaas (in advance)!

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

That is one sweet boat (Or: Sinterklaas display by Hema)

Posted on November 7, 2022 by Niki

By the Hema in The Hague’s city centre there is a display for the upcoming Sinterklaas holiday (5 December):

The display is a boat, a reference to the boat Sinterklaas uses to travel from Spain to the Netherlands every year in November (English Wikipedia). The actual contents of this boat are kruidnoten, small cookies which are a staple for the Sinterklaas holiday.

In other news:

  • Megastores helemaal gesloopt voor nieuwe woontorens from omroepwest.nl (article in Dutch). Megastores is a shopping mall on the other side of The Hague’s Holland Spoor train station. However most of the stores sell furniture or home goods, so the number of shoppers has been dwindling over the years. The article talks about how the entire shopping mall will be demolished in phases starting in 2024, to be replaced by about 2,000 apartments in residential towers.
  • The Zeldzaam mooi markt will be at the Lange Voorhout in The Hague on Sunday, 27 November. The name translates to something like “Rare, beautiful market”. They will be selling retro, vintage and reuse items like jewelry, clothes, home goods, etc.
  • You can donate Sinterklaas presents for kids at The Hague’s Central Library from 14-18 November (indebuurt.nl, in Dutch). The toy drive is sponsored by Sintvoorieder1.
Categories: Everyday purchases, Holidays | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Oliebollen time! (Or: It must be November)

Posted on November 2, 2022 by Niki

You know it is (almost) November when you see the oliebollen (English Wikipedia) stand pop up in the last few days of October, a sign of yummy things to come. Oliebollen are a donut-like treat that is popular this time of year. They are eaten en masse on New Year’s Eve. Marco and I usually make oliebollen every year. These days the stands are allowed to open from 1 November until the end of January.

As you can see they still have their preferred spot at the end of the Grote Markt street. They used to be closer to city hall but moved to this spot when construction for the Amare cultural centre started some years ago. Speaking of Amare–apparently the building will be getting a Spar grocery store (indebuurt.nl, in Dutch).

In other news:

Categories: Everyday purchases, The Hague | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Sinterklaas (Or: HTM’s newest tram driver?)

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Niki

I kid, I kid.

Sinterklaas (a figure based on Saint Nicholas) will be arriving in the Netherlands from Spain on Saturday, 12 November. This year he will be arriving in Hellevoetsluis, which apparently is a city in South Holland. Who knew? English Wikipedia apparently. His arrival in Hellevoetsluis will be televised. But on the day (or around the same day) he arrives in pretty much every Dutch city. How, you ask? Magic. He is Sinterklaas after all.

He will also be arriving in The Hague on Saturday, November 12, in the Scheveningen haven. But this year, due to all of the road work going on throughout the city, he will be taking the tram! And as indebuurt.nl reports (in Dutch), you might even see him driving the tram. But first he needs to take a driving lesson before he is allowed to do that.

The full list of places he will visit can be found at indebuurt.nl. The parade starts at 12:30 at Vissershavenweg and ends at Lange Voorhout at 17:05. If all goes to schedule, that is.

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Anyone ready for a heat wave? (Or: Issues with Buienradar)

Posted on October 22, 2022 by Niki

Buienradar.nl is a well-known Dutch website for weather. Buien = showers/rainfall.

A few days ago they had this as a 14 day prediction for The Hague:

In other words, late next week the temperature would go from about 66F to 95F. That sounds nice! But no, it was just an unfortunate bug in the data which has since been fixed. Actually the temperatures will be dropping from 17C to 13C (62F to 55F). It is probably for the best that it isn’t 95F in late October…

See also: Buienradar: in deel Zuid-Holland volgende week 36 graden from omroepwest.nl.

Categories: Daily Dutch living | Tags: , | Leave a comment

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