Colorful graffiti (And: Sizzling temperatures)

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Niki

Last week Marco and I had Friday off so we were exploring Binkhorst, an industrial part of The Hague a bit more to the south of the city centre. I managed to find some graffiti. First, some frogs!

I also found graffiti of a woman’s face. It was quite striking, although my preference goes to the frogs since it was so unexpected.

The woman looks like she could be an evil villain, like Harley Quinn or a younger version of Cruella De Vil.

At some point we had to cross the canal. The best way to do that was over a very steep bridge. Steep because each step was quite narrow, too narrow to fit my (already tiny) feet on without hanging over the edge. Here’s a link to the Google Maps image but you won’t be able to see well how steep each step is. Like most Dutch bridges, it comes with a groove on each side for you to more easily transport your bike across. It did the job, though. We got across. And Marco was a gentleman and went before me to catch me if I fell! (Or at least we would fall together. Haha.)

In other news, the Netherlands sizzled like a pair of eggs in an overcooked frying pan today. The Hague got to around 35C (95F) at the worst point. To be fair, we only had a few days of really high temperatures. Things are already supposed to cool off tomorrow as the wind changes and a storm rolls in. Hopefully with some thunder and lightning…

Here’s an article from regio15.nl in Dutch about how the weather was so hot today, the tram rails started shooting upwards (!). There were also a lot of issues with bridges getting stuck and not opening due to the heat. There’s also a live blog about the weather over at NOS, one of the public broadcasters in the Netherlands.

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Construction in the city centre (Or: Different road signs)

Posted on June 25, 2025 by Niki

You know you are in The Hague’s Chinatown when even the road signs are translated into Chinese:

I’m assuming it says what the sign in Dutch says – that the street is closed off. Technically The Hague’s Chinatown is the biggest in the country but it is still effectively one long street, or maybe two at most. Nothing like the Chinatowns in other countries.

In other news, the two day NATO summit has just ended in The Hague. The most important thing I have learned while being required to work from home is that eventually, the sounds of the helicopters flying overhead start to sound like background noise. Mostly…

But it was a much larger event than the 2014 nuclear summit (when we also had to work from home). This time there were a lot more road closures, including of highways between Schiphol Airport and The Hague. The main road next to the World Forum, where the event took place, has been closed for more than two months because they needed to build temporary buildings on top of the road to house all of the delegations and journalists. The government recommended that anyone in the Randstad area (The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam) work from home this entire week. Extinction Rebellion took advantage and decided to demonstrate again. You get the idea…

But somehow, nothing crazy happened and everyone is on the way back home. So that’s good.

Hopefully tomorrow is a return to normalcy! (Mostly.)

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A moment of quiet (Or: Just off the main road)

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Niki

Here’s a look a photo I took earlier this week:

Don’t you just wonder how it looks around the corner?

Please note that I took this photo from the public sidewalk. The gate is usually open but it is still private property after all!

Interestingly enough I first thought it was a hofje until I did a bit of research. Marco joked that I thought that because there really are so many of them in The Hague (see also Dutch Wikipedia). A hofje is a small, enclosed courtyard surrounded by houses. These areas were originally built to provide housing for elderly women and often funded by wealthy benefactors as a charitable act. They date back to the Middle Ages and can still be found in many Dutch cities, especially Haarlem and Leiden.

The Gilde Den Haag offers tours of hofjes every Tuesday and Thursday morning, although those are in Dutch. You can also see some hofjes on Open Monument day in September (also known as Heritage Days in English). In fact, there’s a lot of places that open their doors to visitors on that day.

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Another round of Takumi Ramen (Or: A leisurely lunch)

Posted on June 9, 2025 by Niki

Marco and I were out shopping in the city centre when we decided to completely upend our dinner plan and go back to Takumi Ramen on the Gedempte Gracht. Silly Niki and Marco…

Even though we went around 14:00 it was still quite full. Luckily the location is pretty big. They even have an outdoor terrace on the Rabbijn Maarsenplein.

This time I went for the Japanese curry meal with karaage (Japanese fried chicken), miso soup and a seaweed & lettuce salad.

And here is a look at a cool poster behind Marco. I thought the purple color went well with the blue wall.

(This is fairly typical. Here’s a look at some wall decorations at the other location in The Hague.)

The lowkey highlight of the weekend was a storm that passed through late last night. We got treated to some thunder and lightning for about 10-15 minutes, which is fairly rare around here. Summer weather is on its way, with temperatures around 80-85F expected this Thursday, with a chance of rain here and there due to that. Bring on the sun!

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Lays chips (Or: Would you like a box with that?)

Posted on June 2, 2025 by Niki

Last week, a controversy arrived in the Netherlands: Lay’s chips now come in a box. Why is that a problem, you ask?

Because normal sized bags of chips are 185 gram, and the new boxes are 125 gram. For the same price.

Chips van Lays in een doosje, kiloprijs schiet omhoog from nos.nl (Lay’s chips now in a box, price per kilogram skyrockets). The company says the price increase was due to the improved package, as the boxes don’t make as much noise and you can re-seal them so the chips stay fresher longer.

I for one won’t be buying a box (although that is also because there are healthier options available if you want to snack on chips). I’ll miss the Doritos, though.

Has this phenomenon started appearing in other parts of the world yet?

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Takumi Ramen (Or: A new location in the city centre)

Posted on May 27, 2025 by Niki

On Saturday, Marco, Roger and I went to a newly opened branch of Takumi Ramen on Gedempte Gracht (behind Bijenkorf, give or take). We’ve been to their location on the Herengracht many times. However, we were really looking forward to this one opening because they have tonkotsu broth-based ramen here (broth made by boiling pork bones for hours – read more at their website). The one on Herengracht does not have that.

It’s definitely the greatest quality photo, but here’s a look at my black garlic butatama tonkotsu ramen:

Although it doesn’t look like it, this was thinly sliced pork. It was unbelievably tender.

You can still see a bit of a divide between the black garlic and the pork broth in the upper left, as I hadn’t mixed it yet. Marco also received the usual “husband tax” and took my half egg for me, since I am most definitely not an egg fan. Weird, I know. The chopsticks also aren’t pictured. These days I can use chopsticks fairly well, although I still have trouble picking up rice with them.

In the upper left you can just barely see our kara-age (Japanese fried chicken) and in the upper right is my alcohol-free Kirin beer. It was for lunch after all! Not pictured was the korokke, or fried pumpkin croquettes. Perhaps it sounds a bit weird, but the pumpkin version is tasty and something I always try to order if I see it on a menu. The pumpkin inside is at more of a mushy consistency with a bit of Japanese mayonnaise on top. it is served quite hot which I like.

It goes without saying, but the ramen was delicious.

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Tokyo bananas (Or: Gift from a classmate)

Posted on May 17, 2025 by Niki

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet on this blog – I started studying Japanese in December of last year. I’m still very much A1 level, especially in terms of speaking. A1 refers to the Common European Framework of Reference to Languages, or the CEFR for short. A1 is the most basic level. Here’s the description for A1:

  • Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type.
  • Can introduce themselves to others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where they live, people they know and things they have.
  • Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

Sounds about right…

Anyway, a classmate’s partner went to Japan recently, and he brought back Tokyo bananas for us.

Here is it in its packaging, on top of one of my course books. Japan is well-known for individually wrapping everything, but in this case it comes in handy.

And here is it on its own, outside of the packaging:

As you can see it is quite cute, as most Japanese things are. The banana cream inside is quite subtle and not too sweet, which I appreciated. It didn’t wow me, but it was nice. And it was a nice gesture from my classmate for sure.

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London trip, 2025 (Or: Good weather is always appreciated)

Posted on May 10, 2025 by Niki

Marco and I took a short trip to London last week with the Eurostar train, from Thursday morning through Sunday evening. I’m a big fan of the Eurostar train (formerly Thalys) as it only takes about 3 and a half hours and you arrive in the city centre at the St. Pancras station. Of course, we had to get to Rotterdam first and if you are traveling to London you have to be at the station an hour before your train departs so you can clear security and immigration. So it is more like 4 and a half or 5 hours in total in the end. However, if you’re staying in the EU, like Paris, you only need to arrive about 15-20 minutes before your train leaves.

We lucked out – the weather was definitely on our side. It was about 26C/78F on the day we arrived, with the weather slowly getting colder each day we were there. We only wore a jacket on our last day. The only rain we had was a meager drizzle for two seconds while we exited the hotel and entered the cafe next door for coffee.

One of the days we went to the Design museum to see the Tim Burton exhibition:

The exhibition takes about an hour and is five large rooms. There’s plenty to see in those rooms, though. Note that it is only around until May 26, though it will probably move to a different city later in the year. You can read more about it at the official website.

After the Design museum we took a stroll through Holland Park. Inside the park you have the Dutch gardens:

It was full of absolutely gorgeous flowers. The proof is above!

And also a few statues, strategically placed.

After that we visited the Kyoto garden, also in Holland Park. It was created for the 1992 Japan festival in London.

There was a marble slab of a bridge going across part of the pond which you could walk across, allowing you to get pictures up close.

It was a peaceful place, and gorgeous in the beautiful weather we had.

All in all it was a lovely long weekend, although it is definitely nice to be lazier this weekend!

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Flowers and trees (Or: Random photos from around The Hague)

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Niki

Check out these pretty flowers along the Vondelstraat, a street not far from the city centre:

This street is on the way to Kelly’s Expat Shopping, a decent store for expat foods (British and American, with a bit of Mexican as well).

And the photo above was taken just outside of the Paleistuin (Palace gardens). The gardens are freely accessible during the day, and I’ve taken many pictures of it from the inside. This time I figured I would take a picture of the path that runs just outside of it. It’s actually a nice place to walk, except for the bits where the stones are coming up due to the trees pushing them up. You can’t really see that in the photo above, though.

First official summer day arrives in the Netherlands earlier than usual, topping 25°C from nltimes.nl. Of course, the official temperature comes from a town called “De Bilt” closer to the middle of the Netherlands. We got to about 22C here in The Hague, around 72F.

And of course if you have sudden warm temperatures, you also need to have this article: Open water still too cold for swimming despite warm weather, rescue organization says, also from nltimes.nl. You know a lot of people will try!

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Tompouce (Or: The yearly battle to not get messy)

Posted on April 27, 2025 by Niki

Yesterday was the King’s Day holiday in the Netherlands, celebrating the birthday of King Willem-Alexander. His birthday is on April 27, but since that falls on a Sunday it was celebrated yesterday instead.

The company I work for through a King’s Day party this week, complete with orange tompouce, cheese blocks with Dutch flags sticking out of them, and borrelnootjes (Wikipedia). The last is a peanut or similar nut with a crispy coating around it. The flavor of the crispy coating can differ. Think of things like cheese & mustard, bacon & cheese, oriental, provencal, paprika (bell pepper), etc. They are a typical snack to eat at a bar, or you can buy them at your local grocery store.

HEMA is a big seller of tompouce, although you can also get it at Albert Heijn and probably other grocery stores. But for King’s Day the typically pink frosting is replaced with orange frosting:

I’ve mentioned before how impossible it is to eat these things with just your hands. The middle layer is cream, so if you bite down it will of course squirt out on the other side. My usual method of attack is to use a small fork to eat most of the cream, damaging the structural integrity of the top layer like I am playing a mad game of Jenga. Eventually I pull off the top layer before it collapses, alternating between eating the top layer, the remaining cream in the middle, and the bottom layer.

Tompouce is tasty, but very sweet. Once a year is good enough for me. Luckily a coworker was willing to “halfsies” so we each had half. You can read more about the history of tompouce at HEMA at their website (you’ll need to use Google Translate).

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