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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

Holiday trams (Or: Tram 1 in The Hague, 2015)

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Niki

This year HTM in The Hague decked out a tram for the holidays. Here is another look at the tram, showing off the lights at night (a picture in the daylight can found in this blog post). Tram 1 runs between Scheveningen and Delft.

2015 holiday tram 1 in The Hague

Last year HTM placed a piano at the Spui tram stop.

Categories: Holidays, Transportation | Tags: HTM, trams | 5 Comments

Fireworks! (Or: Blowing up a small part of the Netherlands)

Posted on December 27, 2015 by Niki

Blog post title is a reference to a quote from The Simpsons: “Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it!”

It’s that time of the year again. Time to buy fireworks!

Of course the Dutch take New Year’s celebrations to the extreme. A fireworks complaint hotline had 17,000 complaints within 2 days of it opening (10 days before New Year’s). The American government emailed their usual warning to US citizens in the Netherlands (link from 2014, but it’s pretty much the same this year). The city website has safety measures, which includes a list of fireworks-free zones in The Hague.

And yes, the prices in the flyer above are insane!

Categories: Holidays | Tags: Fireworks, New Year's Eve | 3 Comments

Elaborate things (Or: Christmas cards and desserts)

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Niki

Merry Christmas all!

To celebrate the holidays, here is a photo of the card that Marco’s dad and his wife made and gave us:

(We’ve had it for a while but on the off chance that another relative reading this blog would get a copy, I decided to hold off on posting it.) At the bottom of the photo you can also see the box it came in.

Another Christmas-y photo – Roger made a tiramisu dessert in a wine glass for his family’s Christmas dinner. Here is the yummy result:

I can say Marco and I had the pleasure of being guinea pigs twice for this dessert so he could get it just-right for today’s big unveiling.

Categories: Holidays | Tags: Christmas, Desserts | Leave a comment

Christmas eve (Or: Bijenkorf’s Christmas tree)

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Niki

Today I briefly visited Bijenkorf, a department store, to take a picture of the tree they always have. This isn’t any tree… it stands 4 floors tall, with the base actually above the ground floor (so you could peek under the tree, technically). This was this year’s design:

And a close up of the design (the gold items are large, round boxes):

I must admit it does not really feel like Christmas eve. I think it has to do with the fact that I even worked today. Just a half day, though. I am not completely insane.

Fijne kerstdagen!

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: Bijenkorf, Christmas | 1 Comment

Christmas in The Hague (Or: Markets and trees)

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Niki

On Thursday I went to the Christmas market here in The Hague. It is by the Hofvijfer (Buitenhof), although tonight is the last night. And the craziest stall there? One selling ugly Christmas sweaters.

And here’s a look at the Christmas tree in De Passage:

I’ve written about the Christmas tree a few times, back when the Apple store’s impending arrival threatened its existence, and when it came back (unexpectedly). It’s come back in the two years since, so it looks like it is here to stay.

Two more nights, and then it is Christmas!

Categories: Holidays | Tags: Apple, Christmas, De Passage | 1 Comment

Bikes all around (Or: Advertisements for bike parking)

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Niki

The Hague currently has an issue with the amount of bikes it has lying around, especially in the city center. Over the last year or so The Hague has opened a handful of new bike parking areas, including under the public library. Future work will be done at The Hague’s two train stations (Centraal station and Holland Spoor).

One of the more crowded areas in the city center is by Hema, where the amount of bikes has doubled over the last few years. The city has started putting free bicycle covers on every bike in the area for advertisement purposes:

It says “Put your bike in a free, guarded bike park”

Each bike also gets an advertisement on one of their handles, complete with a map of the nearby free, guarded bike areas in the neighborhood.

The trick is that it is free for the first 24 hours – if you do not remove your bike at the end of the day you need to pay to get it back. This in theory prevents the rider from using the area as a free storage area for a few months (only in theory, as some people just never come back for the bike).

Categories: The Hague, Transportation | Tags: Bikes | Leave a comment

Really? (Or: THAT is extreme weather, HTM?)

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Niki

Marco and I were recently waiting for the tram. While waiting, we had a look at the information posted at the stop. They had recently added in a poster about tram and bus service during “extreme weather”.

I don’t know – would you call this extreme weather?

Perhaps it is the fact that I come from Chicago, where extreme weather would be, at a minimum, a foot of snow (30cm). But even then, there is a good chance of getting a foot of snow in any given year…

And here you have “extreme weather” being labeled as a dusting of snow! Insane Dutchies.

And another festive note, tram 1 decorated for the holidays:

(Pssssst. No snow to be seen!)

Categories: Transportation | Tags: HTM, Weather | Leave a comment