Summer heat (Or: The Netherlands begins to sizzle)

Posted on July 19, 2022 by Niki

Not wanting to be left out of the heat wave that has been occurring across southern Europe for more than a week, The Netherlands joined the fun yesterday and today, with temperatures here in The Hague around 31C/87F yesterday and temperatures today around 37C/99F. Technically that is nothing compared to what the rest of Europe has been going through, or what other parts of the world have been going through, but still.

I went to work this morning as usual (climate controlled office for the win), and it wasn’t too bad at that point. But on the way back…oh my. I felt like I had been smashed against a wall of heat, as if someone had thrown a heavy blanket around all of my being. Still, as long as you find the shade where you can it works out.

Speaking of finding shade…

As you can see, a lot of people went to the beach in Scheveningen. A smart choice, but if you’re smart you either need to bring an umbrella… or you find a spot directly under the pier for shade. Although then you have to wonder what is the point of going to the beach just to sit under the pier, but to each their own.

Luckily the temperatures will drop again tomorrow, so it really was a mini heat wave. Check out some other photos of Scheveningen over at indebuurt.nl (in Dutch, but scroll down for the photos).

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World’s Dutchest police chase (Or: Of course it is with bikes)

Posted on July 14, 2022 by Niki
World’s Dutchest police chase from thenetherlands

The video itself is a bit cropped, especially on the bottom, but if you want to see it in its original size you can click on the video to go to Reddit. (For instance, the guy being on the ground complaining is cut off in WordPress’s embedded version.)

If you think something is a bit off, it is probably the bikes the police are riding on. Usually police get their own bike, which is white with police decals (politie.nl in Dutch, but I linked to it for the image). However, in this video they did not have their own bikes so they had to borrow some from random citizens. Hence why it looks like the police aren’t that great at riding them…

In other news:

  • Hidden Van Gogh self-portrait discovered behind earlier painting from theguardian.com. Good ol’ X-ray scans, letting us see what the artist never intended.
  • Icelandair sends its own baggage crews to deal with Schiphol chaos from nltimes.nl. Although a lot of airports are having staffing issues these days, this is still pretty funny. Schiphol does have a problem with luggage piling up and not getting to its destination, of course. But Icelander is now sending two luggage handlers with on every flight to Amsterdam so that they can help out and make sure that that flight’s luggage gets in the owner’s hands quickly.
  • Apparently The Hague is getting its own Taco Bell (indebuurt.nl in Dutch). I hadn’t realized that were already a few locations in The Netherlands, but there you go. The new location will likely be in the city centre at Vlamingstraat 35, although that isn’t confirmed or official yet. It’s not really a place I really ate at often in the US, so I probably won’t go to it here either.
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Time to app (Or: Word play in a Dutch tram)

Posted on July 6, 2022 by Niki

Here is a bit of Dutch word play for you. First, the image, taken last month in tram 17 in The Hague:

See the advertisement?

Mijn ticket? Blij dat ik ‘m app!

(Very) roughly translated, it says: “My ticket? I’m glad that I app it [use the app to buy one]”. But the word play is with the word app because when spoken in Dutch it is more of a soft “a” like “aap”. This makes it sounds a lot like heb, from hebben or “to have”. If you don’t speak Dutch you’ll have to trust me on that one. So if you read it quickly you could also say that it says: “My ticket? I’m glad that I have it!”

I don’t know, I love it. It’s an advertisement for public transportation and it is a language joke. What’s not to love?

In other news:

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Herb gardens (Or: Antwerp’s botanical garden)

Posted on June 29, 2022 by Niki

During our visit to Antwerp last week, Marco, Roger and I also visited a small botanical garden, Den Botaniek (English Wikipedia). What can I say, I like to take pictures of pretty flowers…

The koi fish were just an unexpected bonus:

Or, the artwork below. It’s thought provoking, but I just can’t get past the bird crap on the smallest head. Hmm. Perhaps he was trying to hide from the birds but he just couldn’t hide fast enough?

Continue reading →
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Lightning trip (Or: Concerts and architecture in Antwerp)

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Niki

Marco, Roger and I were in Antwerp earlier this week for the Hella Mega Tour (Weezer, Fall Out Boy and Green Day). We booked the tickets in early 2020 and then only got to see the show now. Thanks corona! The scheduling was really nicely done, with Weezer and Fall Out Boy playing for an hour and Green Day closing the show with an hour and a half performance. Everything was almost perfectly timed (with only a few minutes delay here and there). The show ended when they said it would, wow!

Part of the reason everything is so perfectly timed is because 50 cents of your ticket price goes to public transportation, so you can ride the bus, tram or metro for free there and back. The venue and public transportation company agreed that all shows must end by 23:30. If that happens, the public transportation company guarantees that line 1 would run for an hour after the show ends. In the end we did take the tram there, although we walked back to the hotel after the show (about a 30 minute walk) due to how crowded the metro was. Technically they call it a metro, but the vehicles that arrive are still the shorter trams, so nothing like the New York City metro.

I will spare you my less than spectacular photos of the concert itself, so here are some other ones:

This is a statue of Nello & Patrasche, characters from the book A Dog in Flanders (visitantwerpen.be in English).

What can I say, I like Ferris wheels. And I thought this was a pretty image, with the Ferris wheel just poking out from behind the trees. This Ferris wheel is called “The View”.

Above: a look at some of the architecture in the city centre. Very pretty! We also enjoyed the nice wide streets as it made it easy to walk around.

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Traveling by boat (Or: A day trip to Amsterdam)

Posted on June 19, 2022 by Niki

Last week Marco and I traveled to Amsterdam to see my sister-in-law, who was in town for work. One of the activities we did was a canal tour by boat:

A random bridge along the way. The weather was great, as you can see. Blue skies and lots and lots of sun. I of course forgot to bring sunscreen but hey, what can you do (except be smarter next time). We also had lovely weather this weekend, although today’s weather definitely colder with a hint of rain here and there.

And one of the random house boats we saw along the way. It’s definitely not my thing to live on one of those, but to each their own. The flowers were a nice touch.

Speaking of flowers: a lovely, flower covered bike. It definitely demands your attention.

And finally, a bowl of yoghurt for me and a small plate of poffertjes (Dutch mini pancakes) for my sister-in-law. This was a restaurant very much themed towards tourists – I think there were about 15 orange clogs hanging from the wall. (Both pages link to English Wikipedia.)

All in all a fun day. I miss the sun already!

Categories: Food, Friends&Family, The Hague | Tags: | Leave a comment

Disappointment at the expat store (Or: Now and Later candy)

Posted on June 13, 2022 by Niki

As a kid I was always eating Now and Later candy (English Wikipedia). Or Spree candy, the chewy version. The best part about Now and Later candy is that it is hard now and chewy later, hence the name.

I have thought about these candies now and then over the years, but it was never a big enough craving to buy a bag while I was in the States. I usually think about the candy whenever I see Marco put a peppermint in his mouth and bite it immediately. He can never wait, not even a few seconds. I told him before “well if you had a Now and Later candy you wouldn’t be able to do that!” because the candy starts off so hard it is impossible to safely bite through at the beginning.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the local expat store, Kelly’s, started selling the Now and later candies last month. I immediately planned a trip to the store and dragged Marco along. Later that night I unwrapped a candy, inspecting it. It looked hard like the original candy, but perhaps quite like I remembered. I took a bite, and felt the familiar disappointment of an expat set in. By which I mainly mean the disappointment of moving away and things change while you are gone. It was still tasty, mind you. Just not quite the same as it used to be. It isn’t as hard anymore–maybe people sued over their broken teeth–which was unfortunate considering the name.

It’s still fun to things drifting over from the States, though. I think two of the most important things are Frank’s original red hot sauce (for me) and Frank’s red hot buffalo wing sauce (for Marco). You can even get it at the local grocery store, Albert Heijn. No extra trip to the expat store needed. So it isn’t all disappointment!

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: | Leave a comment

Dutch typos (Or: Watch out for beers)

Posted on June 6, 2022 by Niki

In Dutch a bear is a beer (plural: beren).

Here is something I spotted at a local gift shop which I will not name:

Hmmm. You almost wonder if it is on purpose, but I don’t think so!

In other news:

Bioscopen draaien beste dag sinds begin coronacrisis from nos.nl (=Movie theatre has best day since the start of the corona crisis). Movie theatres were hit hard here. Even when they were not forced to completely close they still had to adhere to social distancing and have open seats between each group, or they weren’t allowed to sell refreshments, or they had to deal with a night curfew. But now since the new Jurassic World and Top Gun films have come out, and since Dr. Strange is still being shown in the theaters, the number of people going to the movie theatre is starting to (slowly) rise again.

HTM-chauffeurs staken volgende week opnieuw als ze geen toezeggingen krijgen from omroepwest.nl (=HTM drivers will strike again next week if they don’t get what they asked for). The article is actually from last Thursday, the day of the previous strike. HTM workers say they will go on strike again this Friday, June 10 if negotiations don’t go well before then.

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: | 2 Comments

Prime location (Or: MediaMarkt is really in the city centre now)

Posted on June 2, 2022 by Niki

Last week MediaMarkt moved about 300 meters. Still on Grote Marktstraat, but now it is even closer to the city centre action. MediaMarkt is like a Dutch Best Buy, for my American readers. The new location is in the building which used to house the V&D clothing store (1969-2015) and the Canadian store Hudson’s Bay (2017-2019). Hopefully MediaMarkt has more luck than those two stores did…

It is definitely a prime location, even better than the previous one which was near the end of the Grote Markstraat shopping area. And what picture isn’t accentuated with someone cycling past?

This image is kind of funny – I hadn’t realized the girl in the middle was basically filming herself with MediaMarkt in the background. Maybe she was streaming it to YouTube? Especially with how she is holding her free hand by her face.

I definitely won’t miss the old MediaMarkt location, with its old grimy carpet and horrible stairs. It was either take the horrible stairs or wait for the slowww elevator. Either way, you lost. There’s no carpet in this new location and there are escalators if you want to go to the upper floor. That alone makes it a win in my book.

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

No transport for you (Or: Likely strike by HTM on Thursday, June 2)

Posted on May 25, 2022 by Niki

Last week workers by HTM (The Hague’s public transportation company in this area) announced that they would be going on strike on Thursday, June 2. Among other things, drivers are looking for 5% extra pay and a solution for too much work.

Staking bij HTM: binnenkort hele dag geen trams en bussen in Haagse regio at omroepwest.nl in Dutch (Strike at HTM – in the near future no trams or buses in The Hague region)

At first I thought there might be a chance that the the news came out early because they were hoping to bring attention to the situation while negotiations continue, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. On Google I found a page over at cnvvakmensen.nl (a trade union): Oproep tot staking 2 juni HTM. This page explains what HTM workers should do if they are working in the morning, or a later in the day, or a night shift into morning that day, and more. Even what they should do if they want to show solidarity but not strike (take a day off) or what they should do if they don’t want to strike (contact HTM and work their shift in the the garage as HTM has also said no buses or trams will ride if there is a strike).

So at the moment it looks like the strike will happen, although the news hasn’t really been broadcast widely on The Hague’s news sites or on htm.nl – yet.

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