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Yet another try for Spuistraat 19-20a (Or: SoLow XXL)

Posted on June 14, 2015 by Niki

Spuistraat 19-20a used to be a bookstore by the name of De Slegte. Many years ago, that is – Marco used to get his used textbooks there. Then a few years ago it was taken over by another bookstore, Selexyz. Then last year or so it became Paagman’s, yet another bookstore. See a pattern yet? Then Paagman’s moved to Lange Poten… So that particular location seemed rather cursed.

In early May a new store moved in – this time a SoLow, a discount store. It’s pretty decent, with a mix of normal discount items and random items that they just happened to get in stock that month.

XXL is definitely the correct term – it’s pretty large inside. I do recommend giving it a look if you live in The Hague. It is also good to check out for Halloween costumes as well closer to October.

Here’s a bonus picture of the neighbor’s cat napping in the garden:

Categories: Shopping, The Hague | Tags: Cats, SoLow | Leave a comment

Exhibition football (Or: The Netherlands vs the United States)

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Niki

Friday night I went with a small group (Marco, Roger and Roger’s mom) to an exhibition football (soccer) game. The game was between the U.S. and the Netherlands and held at the Amsterdam ArenA. No, the last A is not a typo!

The stands, before most arrived

Orange streamers before the game started

A note about the above picture. It looks like a flyer but if you look very closely you can see lines, each about an inch or an inch and a half apart, where it can be folded. It is a pretty thick cardboard, so when it is folded it becomes a very thin but powerful noisemaker. You smack it against your hand instead of clapping. And there was one at every single seat. Thanks to the stadium’s acoustics it is LOUD. Unfortunately it is nowhere near as powerful outside the stadium!

You can see the football in the bottom right (the white streak) as the Dutch advance. About 2 seconds later they scored to go ahead 2-1.

Speaking of the score, with about 5 minutes to the Dutch were ahead 3-2. And then the Americans scored twice to win the game. With 5 minutes to go…

Score at end: 4-3

Marco said it was because the American national team’s coach is from Germany and he was a great forward in the 1990’s. The Germans have a habit for coming back from behind at the end of the game. Regardless, it was definitely a fun experience.

Categories: Sports | Tags: Football | 3 Comments

Summer (Correction: One day of summer)

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Niki

Here in the Hague it is 30C (86F).

Unfortunately it will only be for today, reinforcing my belief that summers are few and far between here. This was only the second day I didn’t take a jacket to work this year! It’s okay though… the winters are currently just as mild which IS nice.

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

And now for Vietnamese food (Or: Little V in The Hague)

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Niki

Marco and I went with his mom to Little V, a Vietnamese restaurant just off the Centrum area in the Rabbijnmaarsenplein. The plaza also has a noodle bar, an Asian restaurant and a sushi restaurant. It’s right next to Chinatown. But until WWII, Jews lived there. Rabbijnmaarsenplein is named after rabbi Isaac Maarsen (1892-1943). There’s a wiki article about the neighborhood in Dutch.

The food and cocktails were great. The service was fast. We were given the option of receiving appetizers and the main course at once or apart, and we also had the option to get the main course as soon as we were done with the appetizers or to wait a bit. Paying was also hassle free- I am used to the Dutch culture where no one can be found when you want to pay because everyone thinks you want to converse for four hours…

Here are some of the photos from the restaurant:

appetizers – in the foreground at right is chicken spring rolls. In the back is shrimp spring rolls. And at left are rice rolls with chicken and vegetables inside.

Continue reading →

Categories: Food | Tags: Little V, Restaurants | 2 Comments

Hemelvaartsdag (Or: Visiting Zoetermeer on a day off)

Posted on May 16, 2015 by Niki

This past Thursday was a national holiday here in the Netherlands – Hemelvaartsdag, or Ascension Day, a Christian holiday. Marco and I decided to take the tram to Zoetermeer and do some shopping. Well, I decided to do some shopping and Marco begrudgingly came along… I kid, I kid.

We visited the Stadshart (City’s heart) to do our shopping. I did manage to find a new pair of pants for work – harder than one might think as the Netherlands seems to discriminate against short folks like me! Here’s a view of the indoor part of the shopping area:

One interesting thing about this area was the lack of proper protection against wind in the beginning. Not long after it opened it became clear that this area was really nothing more than a huge wind tunnel. I found an old article in Dutch about the issue (article) but I mostly know about it from the stories Marco told me.

As usual we stopped at Bagels & beans for a coffee and an apple crumble. The weather wasn’t as good as it was a few weeks ago in Leiden but it wasn’t too cold. For the Netherlands anyway…

Categories: Everyday purchases, Zoetermeer | Tags: Bagels & Beans | Leave a comment

Marco’s gift (Or: A new watch!

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Niki

After work Marco surprised me with a new watch! A bit crazy since I don’t normally wear watches, but we had been talking about the Apple watch lately…

Isn’t it great? Marco is so sweet!

And so is the watch…

Hopefully it is 5:25 am or pm before I get hungry enough to eat it, just so I can say it was right once…

(I have no interest in wearing a watch. I tried it as a kid but it was more annoying then useful. I find it interesting to follow news of the Apple Watch, but only to see how it develops from afar. I don’t think it will really hit its stride until version 3 or 4. Until then my wrist stays bare.)

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: Candy | Leave a comment

A suitcase of WWII letters (Or: Found in The Hague)

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Niki

Recently a suitcase full of WWII letters were found in the French restaurant Walter Benedict in The Hague. (Article: in English | in het Nederlands). These letters were uncovered during a renovation and were written by Israel Bachrach, a Jew living in The Hague. He wrote to both his mother and his non-Jewish girlfriend about how horrible it was to live in a German-occupied city.

The Facebook page for the restaurant talks about how the letters were discovered. In Dutch: “Tijdens het strippen van het plafond in het achterhuis waar nu de keuken gevestigd is vielen oude brieven met daarin foto’s en kleding naar beneden. Een dag voor het strippen hadden we al vraagtekens bij de ruimte waarin onze keuken geïnstalleerd zou moeten gaan worden. Dus zijn we naar het gemeente archief gegaan om de oude bouwtekeningen van het pand te bekijken. We stuitten op een bouwtekening uit juli 1941 waarop duidelijk wordt dat een extra vloer in het achterhuis is geplaatst waardoor een geheime ruimte tussen de vloeren ontstond.”

In short – the restaurant was working on the renovations for the kitchen. They had questions about the room (dimensions or similar) and decided to go to the city hall’s archive to ask for the building’s blueprints. They were able to find blueprints from July 1941 which made it clear that there was an extra floor in the room (and thus a space in between the two floors to hide items). This is where the letters were found.

Walter Benedict was able to escape in September 1942 to Switzerland (via Belgium) though there were a few close calls where he was almost caught – but he made it out. After the war he returned to The Hague and opened a bookstore at the spot that would later be occupied by the French restaurant.

Jewish letters unearthed at restaurant in The Hague

Picture taken from https://www.facebook.com/WalterBenedictDenneweg

Categories: Culture | Tags: Dutch history | Leave a comment

Irodion, Greek restaurant in The Hague (Or: Desserts and city views)

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Niki

A few weeks ago Marco and I went to a Greek restaurant with my father-in-law and his wife. We went to Irodion, a restaurant which has recently re-opened on the Grote Marktstraat (it used to be at another nearby corner, but construction forced it to move so it was closed for a time). They have a snackbar on the ground floor and a restaurant on the first floor.

The best thing about the restaurant is the view of the Grote Markt plein. (It looked like most of the tables next to the window were four seaters, so keep that in mind.)

And here is a look at the bar:

The food was comparable to the Greek restaurant we usually go to, Athene. In both places you generally have the option of a salad bar to go with your meal, plus the typical Greek choices. If anything this menu was a bit easier to get through, as they had less combinations listed (though the same food on offer). Athene does give you a complementary chilled shot of ouzo, a licorice alcohol served as aperitif.

The desserts were pretty nice. First the dame blanche:

There is so much whipped cream you can’t even see the vanilla ice cream! And of course it comes with a rather generous serving of chocolate sauce to pour on top.

Here is the baklava dessert:

The cool thing about the presentation is the orange slice, although it is hard to tell why from this angle. It is a full orange slice cut in half so that one half is draped on one side and the other on the other side, with the peel connecting the two sides.

Categories: Food, The Hague | Tags: Restaurants | 1 Comment

Flowers for a compliment (Or: Albert Heijn)

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Niki

Last week my mother-in-law and I made a stop at Albert Heijn. She had a coupon from the Allerhande (the Albert Heijn recipe book) for a discount on Senseo coffee. The coupon itself was good from mid-March until today but she hadn’t had much luck finding an Albert Heijn with the item in stock.

When she asked at the customer service desk for this particular Albert Heijn (Grote Markt 55A) whether they had the item in stock, the worker looked in the back for the item and whether or not it might be re-stocked soon. When she couldn’t find it, she offered a few different options. My mother-in-law was quite pleased with this service and remarked about how the service at this Albert Heijn was better than at her own. At this remark we both received flower bouquets, a quite unexpected move.

Here’s a picture of mine, though I’m sorry for the blurriness. I tried to sharpen it a bit, but it didn’t quite work out:

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

New York marathon (Or: A puzzle marathon)

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Niki

The puzzle is now complete! As a reminder it is a puzzle with the name “NY marathon”. 1,000 pieces! This was two nights ago:

And around dinner time tonight:

You can find the puzzle here.

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: Jigsaw puzzles | 2 Comments