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Van Dale’s Word of the year (Or: Anderhalvemetersamenleving)

Posted on December 15, 2020 by Niki

Only the Germans like their words longer…

Anderhalvemetersamenleving or 1-and-a-half-meters-society is Van Dale’s word of the year for 2020 (article from dutchnews.nl). Van Dale is a Dutch dictionary company. Anderhalvemetersamenleving took 30% of the vote, with 12,000 votes cast.

Here are a few interesting articles about the lockdown that are available in Dutch from nos.nl:

Hoe een telefoontje van Van Dissel alles veranderde – How a phone call from Van Dissel [Dutch virologist] changed everything. It’s an article about how we went from the press conference on the 8th to the hard lockdown announced last night. That’s less then a week if you are counting.

Niet-essentiële winkel mag open als die ten minste 30 procent essentiële artikelen verkocht – Non-essential stores can open if 30% of their items are essential. In that scenario they can only sell those essential items. If a store sells at least 70% essential items then they can sell everything. But that is, of course, a game of percentages…

Above is a picture taken in De Passage (a covered shopping area) in The Hague last weekend. I thought it was cute to see the stockings hiding behind the windows on the second floor, which isn’t accessible to shoppers.

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Rutte’s December speech (Or: Into a hard lockdown we go)

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Niki

The Dutch minister held an emergency speech this evening to announce a hard lockdown beginning tonight at midnight. Just like the speech in March earlier this year, it took place in his work office at the Binnenhof (nicknamed Torentje or “Little tower” – English Wikipedia).

…and because of this choice of location, it was much easier for protestors to make themselves heard, on live television, with whistling, shouting and general noisemaking. Oh well. Rutte did make mention of it halfway through his speech, pointing outside and saying “It is isn’t an innocent flu as some people outside here think”.

Rutte confirms five-week lockdown in the Netherlands; Schools shut from Wednesday from nltimes.nl

Hard lockdown unavoidable, says Dutch PM, ruling out foreign travel until March from dutchnews.nl (this one has a photo from the outside looking in at Mark Rutte as he gives his speech – an interesting view)

Here is a list of the most important rules, which take affect at midnight tonight and last until at least 19 January:

  • non-essential stores are closed (some of the exceptions are supermarkets, pet stores, pharmacies, gas stations and banks)
  • non-medical “contact” jobs are closed (hair stylists, massage parlors, nail salons, etc.) Medical “contact” jobs like dentists or physiotherapists are exempt.
  • from Wednesday all schools (elementary through university) are closed with online education the norm. There are a few exceptions for exams or “vulnerable” students. Daycares are also closed, except for parents with vital jobs.
  • only two guests are allowed per day (which the exception of December 24, 25 and 26 when you can have three guests per day). Groups outside can only consist of one household or of two persons total.
  • the urgent advice is again “stay at home as much as possible” and “don’t travel overseas or book trips until at least 15 March”.
  • museums, zoos, theaters and theme parks are closed. Libraries are also closed, although Rutte mentioned an exception for patrons to pick up and bring back reserved books or allow vulnerable youth to do their homework there. Whether or not the library offers this service is another thing.
  • indoor gyms will close. Some activity is allowed outside but only in groups of two with 1.5 meters distance. Youth under 18 can still exercise in groups, however.
  • The urgent advice of “work as much as possible from home” is still in effect.

At the moment the next press conference is scheduled for 12 January, when the government will discuss the next steps leading up to 19 January, the current end date for the hard lockdown.

Christmas tree by Huijgenspark in The Hague
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Christmas trees (Or: Another weekend of too many shoppers)

Posted on December 13, 2020 by Niki

Check out this Christmas tree which I saw by the Plein in The Hague:

Christmas tree near the statue of Willem de Oranje

It’s a cute Christmas tree, but I will admit it looks like someone had a bit too much fun with strips of toilet paper at the bottom. I assume it is actually tinsel, though.

I saw an even more creative Christmas tree over on the r/thenetherlands Reddit page:

Alternatieve kerstboom op Onze Lieve Vrouweplein in Maastricht. from thenetherlands

(Alternative Christmas tree in Maastricht at the “Our Lady plaza”.) Those are café/restaurant chairs. Since the cafés and restaurants are only open for takeout or delivery these days, why not re-use them (or store them) as a Christmas tree? The best part: In the back on the left of the photo you see the hint of another Christmas tree.

The last few days have seen the number of coronavirus cases skyrocket. We’re now back to around 10,000 cases a day. There was an emergency meeting of the safety regions and the government today, with a few additional meetings tomorrow. It is unclear if they will hold a press conference this coming Tuesday or if they will hold it tomorrow, one day earlier than they usually would (press conferences generally happen on Tuesdays).

There are a few measures that could be taken:

  • closure of ‘through’ or ‘transfer’ locations where a lot of people meet, for example libraries, movie theatres, zoos, cinemas, etc.
  • closure of all not-essential stores (everything except supermarkets, pharmacies, etc.)
  • closing of schools

Of these I think either the first two are more likely. Interestingly the Netherlands actually did not close essential stores during the first wave back in March / April. It was always the store’s choice to close or not. However, Germany has also announced a hard lockdown that will last through 10 January so some are speculating that German tourists will travel across the border to do their Christmas shopping here unless we also go into a hard lockdown as well.

New coronavirus infections near 10,000 as ministers discuss new measures from dutchnews.nl

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Early Christmas present from Roger (Or: Baby Yoda cuteness!)

Posted on December 12, 2020 by Niki

Roger surprised Marco and I with an early present: a Christmas ornament featuring “The Child” from the Star Wars Mandalorian TV show. Otherwise known by most as “Baby Yoda”.

And the view from the side:

In other news – unfortunately it was busy again today in The Hague city centre. In the tweet below you first have four photos from Regio15.nl showing the city centre (including the last photo, of the ever-present line by Primark) and then at the bottom of the tweet you have a message from The Hague’s mayor reminding people to pay more attention to the corona rules (spread out your Christmas purchases, shop online, keep 1.5 meters distance from others and wear a face mask where needed):

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Legoland (Or: The Hague in miniature)

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Niki

As reported a bit earlier this year, Scheveningen will soon be home to a Legoland Discovery Centre, opening later next year. There is now a “mini Den Haag” on display at Legoland. The display includes a mini Scheveningen pier and Kurhaus, The Hague’s city hall, train station Holland Spoor and more.

Read more here (in Dutch, from omroepwest.nl): Preview van mini-Den Haag in Legoland

And here is another photo of some of our Christmas decorations, some of my favorites:

Since they are some of my favorites I am sure they have appeared on this blog before. The two snowman statues on the left and the right are from the Royal Christmas Fair The Hague. We loved them as soon as we saw them. The snowman in the middle is from Primark, a purchase made a few years ago.

I had to brush up on my vocabulary for the decoration in the middle. Apparently the dangling legs are called bungelbenen in Dutch. You learn something new every day.

Happy Friday, everyone. Enjoy your weekend! I will be using it as a chance to sleep in…

Categories: Holidays | Tags: | 2 Comments

Christmas menus (Or: Delivery and take out are all the rage)

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Niki

The good thing about the Netherlands in comparison to America is that you get two days of Christmas (25th and 26th) instead of just one. That means two days of Christmas meals. For one of the days we are planning on ordering from FOAM here in The Hague again. On the other day we will probably make something ourselves.

I did see an advertisement on indebuurt.nl that Food Hall MingleMush is offering their own Christmas menu (meat or vegetarian, 60 euros for two persons). They label it as a “around-the-world trip” of food since they have so many different restaurants adding food into that one box. The two menus are available at this link in English (getalacarte.com). It is tempting, and now I’m wondering if we can order it for the 22nd so that we aren’t completely stuffed anymore by the time Christmas rolls around. Hmmm. We haven’t been to MingleMush since before the corona crisis started, so it would be nice to see it again.

In other news: Non-EU citizens must present negative Covid tests at Dutch borders from Tuesday from nltimes.nl. I wasn’t aware that this rule was coming, although it doesn’t affect me personally. Most of the articles I have seen talk about the effect this will have on UK citizens, since they will no longer be EU citizens from January 1st.

And because we can always use a 1 minute video of lion cubs:

These two female lion cubs were born a few weeks ago at the zoo in Amersfoort. Cute.

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Year in Search (Or: Google’s 2020 trends)

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Niki

Google has released their 2020 “Year in Search” page. You can see what trended worldwide or you can see what trended per country (the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom…). One interesting thing is that the trend categories differ per country. For instance the US has a category for games but the Netherlands doesn’t.

Here are the top 5 search terms for the Netherlands:

  1. Coronavirus
  2. RIVM (Dutch Health institute)
  3. Verkiezingen Amerika (US Election)
  4. Coronavirus Nederland
  5. Snappet (apparently this is education learning platform for elementary students, so digital learning)

The second most popular Why? question was Waarom hamsteren we wc papier? or Why do we horde toilet paper? This was apparently so popular back in March and April that it took the second spot, beaten only by Waarom zijn cornflakes uitgevonden? or Why were cornflakes discovered? (?!? Okay.) (On second thought: don’t Google it unless you want a trip to Bizzaro World.)

In other news: every year a Dutch radio channel plays the Top 2000 (Wikipedia) to mark the end of the year. In late November/early December the Dutch vote on their favorite songs and those votes help determine the list. Between Christmas and New Years the radio channel plays those songs. It was first done in 1999 to mark the transition to 2000; it proved so popular that it became a yearly event. This year it will start at midnight on Christmas Day (that is, the first second of Christmas) so that the radio show has an additional eight hours to play the full-length album versions of some songs.

Fun fact: since 1999 there have been only four occasions where Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody did not take the #1 spot. 2020 will be one of those years, with the Dutch country singer Danny Vera taking the top spot with his song Roller Coaster (YouTube).

Dutch country singer Danny Vera dethrones Queen in Top 2000 records from dutchnews.nl

Oh, but don’t feel too bad for Bohemian Rhapsody as it is still ranked #2.

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Beef stew (Or: A blast from the past)

Posted on December 7, 2020 by Niki

Marco and I make beef stew in our slow cooker about once a year. The beef stew recipe we used this time was from Allrecipes. I like any recipe that only has two steps, don’t you? This time we did it on high setting (4-6 hours) because I had zero interest in stepping out of my nice warm bed before 09:00. In the end it cooked about 5 hours, with the last 30-45 minutes on medium instead of high.

The beef was so tender you could easily pull it apart with a fork. And as you can tell I think potatoes are the second hero of the dish, so I definitely made sure I had a lot of those. Finally, the bread in the background is from Albert Heijn and is their Liefde & Passie spelt brood (Love & Passion spelt bread – a bit hardier to help with the dipping).

The nostalgia is high with this dish. I loved eating this in the winter as a kid. This and chili are Marco and I’s favorite slow cooker dishes. Third place for me is probably pulled chicken.

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A new addition in Grote Markt (Or: Toilets)

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Niki

Kudos to The Hague for putting temporary public toilets on the Grote Markt. The most shocking of all: I didn’t see any signs that you had to pay, which would be quite normal in the Netherlands. Generally the only free bathrooms are found in restaurants or cafés.

Normally these barriers would be used for the Royal Christmas Fair. However, the fair was cancelled so the barriers could be put to a different use. And public toilets are very important right now. At the moment restaurants and cafés are only allowed to be open for takeout or delivery, so there not many public toilets available to shoppers at the moment.

I also saw some toilets by the plaza outside the Tweede Kamer parliamentary building, so it is not just on the Grote Markt. (Oh, and for American readers: yes, that’s TJ Maxx in the background. However in Europe the company goes by the name TK Maxx.)

Above is a tweet from the Scheveningen police, wishing everyone a nice Sinterklaas evening. Everyone opens their presents from Sinterklaas on the evening of December 5, aka last night.

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

Holiday lights (Or: Decorations by the Haagsche Bluf)

Posted on December 4, 2020 by Niki

I write about the Haagsche Bluf sometimes (denhaag.com, in English). It is basically a small shopping area within a larger shopping area. The entrances are obvious but it is still easy to miss if you don’t know what you are looking for. I was out for a quick walk this morning when I spotted the holiday decorations by one of the entrances:

I also spotted a Christmas tree in the distance, via another entrance, but I don’t have pictures of that one. (Another tip: I saw workers wrapping Christmas lights around a large Christmas tree just outside of the restaurant/hotel ‘t Goude Hooft.)

In other news: Piccolo’s zorgen voor ‘gastveiligheid’ in Haagse binnenstad from omroepeest.nl in Dutch. In general terms, The Hague has hired “guides” to help with the expected crowds in The Hague’s city centre. I had to ask Marco for more information about what a “piccolo” was in this context. He said it was like a hotel bellhop who assists you with anything you might need. And indeed, they do look like bellhops.

The interesting thing is that their job is to be positive. If you are wearing a mask, they will thank you for it. If you are keeping one and a half meters distance, they will thank you for it. They will also help you if you need directions (for instance if you need to know where the closest public bathroom is) or similar.

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

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