My apologies for the lack of posting over here. Marco and I just got back from a trip to NYC. We met up with a lot of family members (my parents, brother, sister-in-law and their kids) for some fun in the sun. And a bit of rain…
Without further ado, here are some random pictures we took:
Last weekend I had a day off so I decided to visit the Mall of the Netherlands. It is for the most part a very American looking mall, with dazzling store fronts and small food stands set up in the middle of the walkway. When it first opened I was surprised to see that the mall’s owner is Westfield. I found that particularly interesting considering I lived near a Westfield mall growing up in the US, so it felt like a piece of home.
For lunch I decided to go to the food court on the upper level of the mall. Technically I am European enough these days to want to write that it is on the 1st floor, but any American readers might think I mean ground floor if I say that… (Ground floor = 0 or “BG” for begane grond.)
After walking around looking at the options I chose Laffa, a place which serves Middle Eastern street food. I went for the falafel, which was of course delicious.
That made me realize that eating habits definitely do change, at least for the most part. I hate peas (still do), but if you grind them up or change the texture I am much more likely to appreciate them. I love falafel, I love roti bread.
Back when I was a kid I was mostly enjoyed chicken fingers. Heh. I still have a memory of scrapping spaghetti into a trash can when no one was around as a young picky eater, not realizing that it would be very obvious if anyone looked into the trash can or saw the marks on my plate. Obviously I was caught. For the record, I am still not a fan of spaghetti, but I do love penne. Growing up we called it mostaccioli.
Who knew I would move here and get to eat Vietnamese, or sushi, or Indian, or Indonesian, or Greek whenever I want. Of course, I still need to broaden my horizons a bit more. But it is a start.
Yesterday was Veteran’s Day in the Netherlands, held every year on the last Saturday in June.
Veterans Day attracts 90,000 visitors in The Hague from nltimes.nl, which has some nice photos of the event.
Here is a picture that I took of a medical vehicle. I wasn’t able to get any good pictures of the parade, unfortunately. I was just passing through and most of the city centre had crowds 10 man deep. But the marching bands I could hear sounded great.
In other Dutch news: ‘It’s every woman, it’s us’: Rotterdam falls for British statue of ordinary black woman from theguardian.com. It is a pretty interesting statue. And I love the backdrop of Rotterdam’s Centraal train station in the photo.
The highlight of the day was a predicted storm that would dump a lot of rain on the Netherlands. And it did… just not that much in The Hague. Booooo. Although I suppose that is for the best, considering if it rains too fast the ground wouldn’t be able to soak it up anyway. But except for a bit of rain a few nights ago, it’s been at least a month since it has rained in NL. The plants and grass are definitely starting to turn yellow! Or are completely yellow, in some cases.
Urgent Code Orange storm warning issued for floods, hail, wind, & lightning from nltimes.nl
Dozens of flights delayed or cancelled at Schiphol as storm approaches the northeast, also from nltimes.nl (Glad I am not flying today!)
In other news… ‘Dutch by default’: Netherlands seeks curbs on English-language university courses from theguardian.com. It is indeed quite easy at the moment to follow an education in this country without knowing any Dutch at all.
And, just for fun, here is a photo of a flower on Vondelstraat, a street on the way to Kelly’s expat store:
They definitely caught my eye as I walked past.
As noted, the Netherlands is currently experiencing a bit of a heat wave, with temperatures around 30C or 86F. I decided to take a walk and visit the Koekamp today. It is an area not far from the Central train station, complete with a handful of deer. Of course, they were all hiding in the shade…
I also took a photo of the area from the Koekamp bridge:
The bridge itself is also quite pretty – see a photo at haasnootbruggen.nl. It is for cyclists and pedestrians.
One good initiative that has popped up more and more recently: it is a lot easier to find free sunblock at beaches, festivals and gyms (article in Dutch, from nos.nl).
This past May The Hague was host to an art festival called BlowUp Art. The festival was an initiative of Pulchri Studio. I previously wrote a blog post about the sculptures they had placed on the Lange Voorhout.
Here is a look at one of the six creations featured in the BlowUp Art festival:
This piece is called “Crested” and it was created by Steven Messam.
In other news, the Netherlands will get to experience its first mini heat wave this weekend! Temperatures are expected to be around 30C or 85F here in The Hague. Time to find my sunscreen…
Dit weekend zomerse temperaturen: meer openbaar vervoer naar stranden from nos.nl. Translated: This weekend summer tempatures: more public transportation to beaches. For instance, HTM here in The Hague will be running the Strandexpress tram (=beach express), with limited stops between the Holland Spoor train station, Centraal Station, Madurodam and the beach. And of course it won’t be enough as everyone will descend on the beach with their car, bike or feet!
A few weeks ago I was in Rijswijk (a nearby city) and I spotted a stork sunning themselves in a nearby park:
It was in the same area that I spotted a nest a few months ago:
We now have a Dirk supermarket in The Hague city centre, since this week. It is at the Torenstraat (Tower street). It is in the location where Rock Palace used to be, a store where you could buy all sorts of musical instruments including guitars.
There isn’t much supermarket competition in The Hague city centre. Everywhere is Albert Heijn, with a few Jumbo supermarkets here and there. But now we also have a Dirk (pronounced Dyerk, with a bit of a y sound).
Marco and I decided to visit this weekend. The first thing we saw was this sign:
Translated, it reads “By Dirk you don’t need to horde groceries to get savings”. Although the verb to horde, hamsteren, will always make me think of the corona pandemic, where people were warned not to horde groceries and supplies when the pandemic first hit. Most people didn’t listen.
The store technically should have cheaper prices, although most of the products are the same as other supermarkets. The location is a bit on the small side with narrow rows that quickly cause congestion issues. But the worst part is that they only have one cash register with a worker and four self-service checkout points. Definitely not enough in the weekend or during prime time hours. The space for the self-service area wasn’t designed that wisely (the Jumbo in the city centre has six self-checkout points in half the space, for example). But it might be a good location to visit during the quieter hours, maybe.
We finally have some good weather here in the Netherlands! Unfortunately “good weather” in this case is about 19-20C, or 64-68F. But we take what we can get.
This past weekend was the Rrrollend food truck festival, this time by the Hofvijver. I am not sure if this is the first time that it was held there; usually it is at the Lange Voorhout or by Maliveld. People were enjoying the weather. Some were even sitting by the water, although maybe that was just to find a good seat — it was pretty crowded there after all. But dangling your legs over the water is a nice way to enjoy the sun.
A few weeks earlier Marco and I were at Anne & Max, a (chain) café found throughout the Netherlands. Check out the cool pattern on the cappuccino:
The cake in the background was a lime cake, but it was a bit drier than expected. It was still a fun time with Marco, though.
Check out these red, white and blue cupcakes which I spotted at an expat store in the Mall of The Netherlands (yes, NL jumped on the bandwagon as every time I hear of the name I think of the Mall of America).
Sometimes with overly American branding I have to wonder if it was actually produced in the US or not. Companies make something that sounds American, they put an American flag on it and brand it American. But if you look closely you will see it was made in Europe.
And check out that price. €9,99 or $11.20. For 8 cupcakes!
Another thing that is very expensive here is a box of Cheerios. Those are also about €10 each, unfortunately.
Life in the Hague 