The first signs of spring (Or: Tulips have been spotted)

Posted on April 20, 2023 by Niki

On my way to Kelly’s Expat Shopping last weekend I spotted a lovely bunch of flowers planted along the sidewalk:

It is a good reminder that spring is coming, although it certainly hasn’t arrived yet. There have been a few days of full sunshine and blue skies, but it quickly turns cold and grey again. We were promised good weather this week but then the wind direction changed, coming from the east rather than the sea to the west. Brrr.

Speaking of spring… you have a few more days to pick up free seeds in preparation for National Seeding Day. This is possible due to an initiative from The Pollinators (article in Dutch). The goal is to have more flowers which are bee friendly.

If you are here in The Netherlands, don’t forget that King’s Day (April 27) is fast approaching. See also this article about the holiday at dutchreview.com. The night before (aptly named “King’s Night”), The Hague celebrates with The Life I Live festival with lots of little podiums throughout the city centre.

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Healthy birthday cookies (Or: Is there really such a thing?)

Posted on April 12, 2023 by Niki

Tomorrow is my birthday and I decided to spend it going to work. Eek.

Actually, yes, but I am taking Friday off. Part of the reason I am going in tomorrow is because it is the monthly post-corona “common office day” where everyone is asked to come in so we can remember what we look like in person. (I kid, I kid. I see most of my coworkers once a week.) Since everyone is in the office together tomorrow we decided to do a potluck lunch. Aka a lunch where everyone brings something in.

Since I am not much of a cook, I decided to bake cookies. Unfortunately, I am not much of a baker either, so Marco was of great help there.

I chose a recipe for oatmeal cookies with banana (no sugar added):

This was originally a Dutch recipe (original website). As happens every once in a while, I had to look up what havermout is. Apparently it is quick cooking oats, which just brings up childhood memories of my parents eating oatmeal for breakfast.

The recipe contains quick cooking oats, raisins, almonds, cinnamon powder, baking powder, banana and apples. I chose Granny Smith apples as those are nice and sour, and I added some lemon zest for a flavor contrast.

I am not going to lie. The cookies look a bit ugly, but I made them (with a lot of help from Marco!).

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April Fools in The Netherlands (Or: Tulips that fight back)

Posted on April 2, 2023 by Niki

As usual, there were a lot of April Fools jokes made yesterday in The Netherlands. Here are a few examples:

Unfortunately it is just an April Fool’s joke. Tourists are notorious for trampling tulips just to get the perfect selfie. In response to this The Tulip Barn in Hillegom created a “selfie garden” in 2021 to allow visitors to take photos in a specially created area, complete with Dutch props. That is pretty cool, actually.

The tweet below is in Dutch, but it basically says that elevator accidents caused by drunk passengers have increased by 24% since 2020. Therefore, the Lift Instituut in The Netherlands has banned elevator use by people who have had more than two glasses of alcohol (thereabouts).

And finally, if you’re an international living in The Netherlands with a bike, prepare to get a biking license…

I guess it is a good thing I don’t have a bike, right?

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Optical illusions and mind bending art (Or: The year of Escher)

Posted on March 26, 2023 by Niki

The Hague announced that in 2023 The Hague will “be the city of Escher”. M. C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist born in June 1898, 125 years ago. To mark the occasion, exhibitions have been scheduled at the Escher museum and Kunstmusuem.

You probably know Escher from his impossible staircase (English Wikipedia) or his self-portrait in a reflecting sphere. One of my favorite jigsaw puzzles that I have worked on is Day and Night. I am really looking forward to when I can do that puzzle again.

The Hague’s city hall currently has a huge display honoring the artist:

It reminds me of the tribute they made in the same spot for the Dutch artist Piet Mondriaan back in 2017.

In 2023, The Hague will be the city of Escher (from the official website of The Hague)

The exhibit “Escher – Other World” is being held at the Kunstmuseum through 10 September 2023.

“The Escher exhibition” is being held at the Escher Museum through 1 October 2023.

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Birds and buses (Or: Spotted around town)

Posted on March 19, 2023 by Niki

This past Wednesday was the Dutch provincial elections and the water board elections (English Wikipedia). Both Marco and I voted (Marco for both; I could only vote for the water board as a non-Dutchie).

While shopping in the city centre that day I noticed a stembus or “voting bus” from the local news website Omroep West at the Grote Markstraat:

The bus was an old diesel bus, and you could definitely smell it.

A few days ago I was in Rijswijk, a neighboring town just outside of The Hague. At the top of a building (about three stories high) I spotted a stork building a nest.

Pretty cool.

And, for a touch of randomness: Starlings put on nightly show above Amsterdam’s Sarphatipark, but poop coats neighborhood from nltimes.nl

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Busy weekend (Or: Protests and demonstrations in The Hague)

Posted on March 12, 2023 by Niki

Yesterday there were two major demonstrations in The Hague at the same time.

The first demonstration was organized by the Farmers Defense Force and held in the Zuiderpark (Dutch Wikipedia). As the name suggests, it’s a park southwest of the city centre. Originally the farmers wanted to protest by Malieveld, a large grass field not far from The Hague’s Central train station. However, today was the CPC marathon (CPC=city-pier-city) so preparations were already underway by Malieveld to get everything set up. Therefore the city instructed them that the protest needed to be held at the Zuiderpark.

The second protest was held by Extinction Rebellion and they blocked a major road by The Hague’s Central Station. In this case, the group did not officially approach the city to discuss arrangements, although The Hague knew it was going to happen due to social media.

One thing the city did was bring in large army vehicles and strategically place them in different parts of the city if they were needed. The farmers have been known for driving to The Hague in their tractors and generally causing havoc. See also a blog post about this a few years ago, before corona. Here is a look at some army vehicles positioned at the crossing of Grote Marktstraat and Spui.

In the end, the protest by the Farmers Defense Force went fairly well, with only one scuffle when a truck drove through a blockade at Zuiderpark, allowing about 20-25 tractors to come into the park. The farmers protested from 12:00-16:00 as scheduled and then started leaving at 16:00.

Compare that with Extinction Rebellion, who stormed the highway at exactly 12:00, blocking everything. Around 17:00, the police told them they had to leave. At 18:00, the police said anything who didn’t leave would get the “water cannon” treatment. A lot of people left at that point – getting wet on a day with temperatures just above freezing isn’t a good idea – but some stayed. And then seemed surprised when they got wet?

700 climate activists arrested at XR demonstration on A12 in The Hague, 4 activists became unwell from nltimes.nl

[Dutch prime minister] Rutte criticizes XR’s blockade of A12, use of water cannons is their own fault from nltimes.nl

Police use water cannon to end climate protest, 700 arrested from dutchnews.nl

Coincidentally, voting will be held this week for the provincial council and water authority elections, so it is a good time to vote and let your voice be heard, no matter who you want to vote for. Get out there and vote!

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Almost time to vote (Or: Provincial Council and Water Board elections)

Posted on March 5, 2023 by Niki

On March 15, the elections for the provincial council and for the water board will be held. As a foreigner I can only vote for the water board. But a vote for the water board is also an important vote. As you probably know, one third of the Netherlands is under sea level and a large chunk of it is prone to flooding. Each of the 20 municipalities has its own water board, and they can decide things like how water should be used recreationally, what the policy is for low income residents, what investments should be made in nature, etc.

Okay, I am going to admit that it still sounds a bit boring, but it is still a useful thing to do and it only takes a few minutes to vote! (Unless perhaps you choose to vote at iconic locations like the Tweede Kamer or the Kunstmuseum, where the line might get a bit longer. You can even vote in the Amare in the city centre this year. Go for it if you have the time. If you’re registered in The Hague you can choose the location you want to vote at.)

Why you should vote for your local water board? A dijkgraaf explains all from dutchnews.nl

Voter information from The Hague’s official website, in English

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Experience Spring (Or: Time to watch some bird webcams?)

Posted on February 27, 2023 by Niki

And now for something different…

Dutch bird protection organization Vogelbescherming has set up web cameras in and around various nests in the country. It is part of an event called Beleef de lente or “Experience Spring”. You can check it out at their homepage. If a camera is active it will be marked “live”, otherwise it is marked “Binnenkort” or “soon”. You can also collapse the chat window on each web camera to get a larger picture.

I especially like the Slechtvalk (peregrine falcon) camera as you get a lovely view of Amsterdam in the background. The bird is nesting in the clock tower in the Rijksmuseum. You can also switch the camera at the top left of the feed, choosing either Rijksmuseumrooster (the view of the city) or Rijksmuseumbinnen (the view inside the nest).

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Breakfast in The Hague (Or: By Hoender en Hop)

Posted on February 19, 2023 by Niki

Breakfast really isn’t a thing in the Netherlands. At least not the all-you-can-eat and free coffee refills on the side type of breakfast, unless you book a hotel maybe. Recently we read that there is a restaurant in The Hague’s city centre which has a more extensive breakfast that sort of reminded us of American breakfast. We decided to go this past Friday because we both had the day off.

Hoender en Hop translates to something like “Poultry and beer” (Hoender means grouse, a bird, in English). The restaurant is part of the Grote Markt.

This was round one — the highlight for me was the pulled chicken (at the bottom), while the highlight for Marco was the maple-glazed bacon on Marco’s plate at the top. And I even had a bit of scrambled eggs, which is something that only happens every few years at most. Other things on offer were little pancakes and Belgian waffles.

The food was good, the coffee was good. The only thing I might do differently is try it on a Saturday or Sunday. It was pretty quiet on a Friday morning, which meant that we had to wait a while for the coffee refill and the pancakes and waffles weren’t hot anymore. If you had more people taking part in the buffet obviously things would be refreshed more often.

It was definitely worth it, though. We will go back for sure.

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A slightly warmer weekend (Or: Temporary moments of spring)

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Niki

I have to admit it was nice yesterday to wear a lighter jacket and not my winter jacket. The Netherlands is a bit warmer this week, around 9-11C (48-51F). And we haven’t gotten much rain lately at all, especially not in comparison to last month (see also Netherlands on track for the rainiest January ever at nltimes.nl).

Since my mention last week of the Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, I also saw this letter posted on The Guardian’s website: Illuminating Johannes Vermeer’s use of the camera obscura. It reminded me of an episode from one of my favorite podcasts, Everything Everywhere Daily, where the host discussed whether or not Vermeer used this technology. I like the podcast because there are short episodes coming out of every day about every topic under the sun. Each episode is about 10-15 minutes. If you want an even crazier episode you should try Saint Olga of Kiev: The Patron Saint of Vengeance.

Vermeer’s “A woman asleep”, on display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Roger, Marco and I saw it when we were in New York City last November. Read more at their website.

Oh, and in other news – I am having way too much fun playing the newly released Hogwarts Legacy on PlayStation. It is a lot of fun to run around and get collectibles and gear. More fun than actually doing the storyline, perhaps…

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