Posts Tagged With: Canals

Sun and blue skies (Or: A look back at August)

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Niki

Here is a reminder of how blue and bright August looked…

On the plus side for October, the oliebollenkraam is back! An oliebol is like a doughnut (in fact, an oliebol was the inspiration for donuts – see also Wikipedia). I believe the stand opened on October 1, the first date it is legally allowed to open. Here is a photo from October 2:

And this year they have a large message on the back, visible from far away:

It is quite bright and draws you in. That’s a good thing, since the stand is at the end of the shopping street. Visibility is key.

The website of the stand is available at https://www.dehaagscheoliebollenbakkerij.nl, although it doesn’t seem to be completely loading for me at the moment. But still – oliebollen!

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

By the old library (Or: Unassuming bridge in The Hague)

Posted on January 5, 2025 by Niki

Yesterday I was walking near the old library, where the theatre school Rabarber is now at. See also Google Maps. That link also lets you see where the canal runs.

The old library used to be in the building on the left side, where the orange signs are. Yesterday I noticed for the first time that the bridge had a name – Bibliotheekbrug, or “Library bridge”. The library moved to the city centre, in the same building as the city hall, in 1995.

And of course, it’s not a photo of The Hague without some bicycles!

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Water and trees (Or: Photos of The Hague)

Posted on October 29, 2024 by Niki

Here are a few photos that I took around The Hague this month. First, a canal with some beautiful flowers and clouds:

Then, a set of apartments and a pond around the S100 road (a main artery), also known as the Burgemeester Patijnlaan. Apparently it is the Athena condominiums. Who knew?

And finally, a photo of a crazy looking tree along the Koninginnegracht, another main road where tram 9 runs. The trees stand on the edge of a canal. It’s most likely the same canal in the first photograph, just in a different part of the city. It’s all interconnected.

It’s definitely the type of tree which could feature in a Halloween story, if the lighting was a bit darker.

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Random internet activities (Or: The fish doorbell)

Posted on March 23, 2024 by Niki

Have you heard of the fish doorbell? (I think I posted about it at some point.)

There’s a canal in the Dutch city of Utrecht in the middle of the Netherlands. The canal is shared by boats and fish, with a boat lock that opens and closes as needed. But this is also the time of the year that the fish move upstream searching for places to spawn.

What do the fish do if the boat lock is closed? They wait.

What do they wait for? For you to press the doorbell of course!

If you see a fish on the live stream waiting at the door, you can push the doorbell. The page is at: https://visdeurbel.nl/en/the-fish-doorbell/. A bit further down on the page you see a live stream, probably full of murky water and no fish. On the right side there’s a doorbell. If you see a fish, you press the doorbell. This lets a human know they should check and open up the boat lock so the fish can pass through. (Note: if there are more than 950-999 viewers, you’ll see a YouTube stream instead with no doorbell, due to capacity issues.)

The fish doorbell news report – a YouTube channel with weekly news about what fish they saw in the last week and predictions for next week, with subtitles in English.

Nicest photos – a look at some of the nicest photos taken this year.

Categories: Culture, Utrecht | Tags: | Leave a comment

Blue skies (Or: Canal in The Hague)

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Niki

While taking a walk earlier I decided to photograph one of the canals in The Hague’s city centre.

The best part of this photo? The lovely blue skies. But after I took this photo I turned right and all I saw was grey, depressing sky. It looked like it would rain any minute, although it thankfully did not.

Are you also looking forward to Halloween? Check out Festival of frights: 13 ways to celebrate Halloween in NL from dutchnews.nl. Slowly but surely, Halloween is becoming a “thing” here, every year just a bit more. You can also get some Halloween candy at Kelly’s expat store. I bought a few bags of candy corn for Marco and Roger already. It reminds me of the time that Marco and I were visiting my parents in the States and Mom bought a huge tub of candy corn. It disappeared so quickly you would think a ghost ate it all…

The Hague’s official website also publishes a list of events happening in The Hague for Halloween over at their website. You can even attend a Halloween party at the Grote Kerk (“Big Church”) on 28 October.

Categories: Holidays, The Hague | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Beautiful blue canals (Or: Another view of The Hague)

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Niki

Last week I took a walk to the old Red Cross hospital in Segbroek, a neighborhood in The Hague. It was time to get another corona vaccination. It was a route I hadn’t taken before, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a beautiful view of one of the canals:

I love photographing trees dipping into the water. And the blue, slightly cloudy sky was also nice to photograph.

In other news:

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Across the water (Or: Traveling from Rotterdam to Amsterdam by boat)

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Niki

I saw a cool video posted on TheNetherlands subreddit:

Raising the many bridges on the way from Rotterdam to Amsterdam from thenetherlands

The video is about 2 and a half minutes, or there is a 10 minute 4K version on YouTube (link). If you keep an eye on the map in the lower right you can see where the boat currently is.

And how is the camera so high up? It is not a drone. The tugboat you see in the image is pulling a large structure, and the camera was placed on the structure. See also this image (thetimewriters.com).

Finally, if you watch the shorter video above (Reddit), you’ll see a retractable bridge at 1:56. Kind of cool.

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Bikes and canals (Or: Canal by Denneweg)

Posted on July 3, 2021 by Niki

Happy Saturday, everyone!

I took a few photos of the canal by the Dennewegbrug. “Denneweg” is the street name and “brug” is Dutch for bridge.

And in other news, there was a demonstration today at Malieveld, not far from The Hague’s Centraal station. The name is Blijf van onze kinderen af, or “Stay away from our kids”. The article is from regio15.nl in Dutch, with lots of photos. including a photo at the end of one very smart ice cream seller who knows he will do good business here.

The reason for the demonstration? The Netherlands recently decided that 12 – 17 year olds can be vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine if they wanted. 16 and 17 year olds can independently choose for the vaccine, while younger kids need their parents’ permission. The first shot would be given now and the second shot would follow during the first month of school. Appointments for anyone born in 2004 could be made since yesterday, with 2005, 2006 and so forth following next week.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

Anyone want some shredded cheese? (Or: Cheese hack deliveries)

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Niki

On Monday I wrote about a cheese hack that was disrupting deliveries of cheese to the Albert Heijn grocery stores. The hack was resolved and deliveries could resume again. Most of the cheeses had been replaced, although there are still some gaps here and there. But I had to laugh when I saw this pile of shredded cheese:

Note: this was actually the overflow area for the extra shredded cheese they had in stock. They put it in the “weekly sale area”. The normal place for shredded cheese was also overflowing with bags and bags… and bags. It looks like two or three deliveries worth.

In other news… did you hear about the world’s first fish doorbell in Utrecht? It has been pressed 32,000 times so far in the first two weeks (nltimes.nl in English). Utrecht had a problem. At this time of year there is less boat traffic in the canals so fish would frequently find themselves stuck at a locked gate without any way to get to the other side. To solve this, viewers can watch a special webcam at visdeurbel.nl to see if they see fish in view. If you do spot one, you press the red doorbell on the right. If enough people press the doorbell, a human will manually check and if needed open the gate. Note that when you first access the page you might need to refresh it see the webcam properly.

The camera also takes a screenshot and shares the photo with you. Since there are limited moments when you might see fish (the best time of day is in the early evening or evening), the website also has a page with the best photos taken by viewers. Note that the webcam is temporary as it is only needed during the fish migration season.

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Christmas time? (Or: The first trees are already sold)

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Niki

Christmas in October anyone? Our public broadcaster (NOS) is reporting that Christmas trees are beginning to sell: Kerstverkopen dit jaar niet pas ná Sinterklaas, eerste mensen halen al bomen (Christmas purchases this year not waiting until after Sinterklaas [December 5], first people already purchasing trees).

This is to be expected; people are working from home more often and most people won’t be going on holiday this year. I read somewhere that some people are purchasing multiple Christmas trees so that they have one for each room. The only rule I have is that we need to wait until November before we bring out the Christmas decorations. November 1st, that is…

Princess Amalia, and 100,000 other Dutch girls, get their call up papers from dutchnews.nl. Active military service was abolished in 1997, however the letters are still sent to 17 year olds to inform them about a possible career in the military. Letters were also sent to 17 year old girls (the law was changed back in 2018 to send to all, not just boys).

Amsterdam to use flowers to stop cyclists chaining bikes to bridges from theguardian.com. Like it or not, bikes do get in the way often. And one of the places you will always, always see bikes is chained to a canal bridge. The worst part? It doesn’t just spoil the view, it also leaves less room for pedestrians which means they are more likely to walk in the road.

Personally I don’t remember having this issue in Amsterdam but I did experience it in Utrecht. I felt like I was walking in the street at least half of the time, which definitely wasn’t fun.

Categories: Holidays | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

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