Posts Tagged With: Centrum

Toothpaste and tanks (Or: Unexpected art)

Posted on November 3, 2025 by Niki

Recently I was walking along Prinsestraat in The Hague and I noticed some eye-catching art in the window at the art gallery Chiefs and Spirits:

Pretty cool, huh? I also squeeze my toothpaste tube to get every last bit out, so I enjoy it even more because of that, I think.

The Hague’s official website has a list of art galleries in city. For instance, De Affiche Galerij, or loosely translated, the poster gallery – it’s found in tram tunnel at Grote Marktstraat. Most people walk right on past, myself included usually. I need to stop and check the posters out more often!

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Surprise (Or: Giraffes walking through the Grote Marktstraat)

Posted on October 28, 2025 by Niki

Well, not real giraffes of course. But as part of De Betovering (an art festival for the youth), there were performers walking through the city centre a few weeks ago dressed up like giraffes:

And a close up:

Apparently there was also a hippo, although I didn’t see that one. You can read more about De Betovering on the official website, which translates to “The Enchantment” in English. The event was from 17 October to 25 October, during the autumn school holiday.

If you can, don’t forget to vote tomorrow! The vote is for the Dutch House of Representatives. In theory for the next four years, though the government seems to collapse faster than that lately. Of course, you need to have Dutch citizenship to vote, so I won’t be voting in this one. I do plan on getting it, but at this point it is easier to wait and do the option procedure, which I can do once I have lived here at least 15 consecutive years (and because I am married to a Dutch citizen for at least 3 of those years). So that would be after December 2027. Time flies…

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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!

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Rainbows in The Hague (Or: Gone as fast as it arrived)

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Niki

A few weeks ago I noticed a rather well-formed rainbow in The Hague’s city centre. It was quite prominent and colorful.

Here it is on the Prinsestraat, near the Chinese restaurant Zheng (on the right side, just past Prinsestaete).

Here was the rainbow in the city centre, near Sting, a clothing store. Sting is the building in the middle with the colorful bricks. The building itself received the nickname De Snoeptrommel (or candy jar) years ago. I’m sure you can see why.

It was a good photo, although the tram lines got in the way of the rainbow a bit.

Shortly thereafter, the rainbow was gone. It lasted somewhere around 5 to 10 minutes in total. But it was nice to see!

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From above (Or: View of the Grote Marktstraat)

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Niki

Here’s a view of the Grote Marktstraat from the second floor of Uniqlo:

Interestingly, if I held my camera just a bit higher, everything got a brownish tint to it. It looks cool, even if it wasn’t the true colors at the time.

The building on the right side of the photo is Bijenkorf (literally: Beehive). If you’re ever there, take the stairs! That way you can see the impressive stained glass windows – see also this Reddit post.

It’s hard to imagine this street used to be a normal street with buses and trams running down it! See also this post in Dutch from indebuurt.nl.

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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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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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Pink (Or: A different tree in De Passage)

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Niki

De Passage (a covered shopping area) has a tree in the center, where the Christmas tree usually stands. A few weeks ago a tree with pink leaves appeared.

It is fake, of course, but still pretty. Since it is in the center, you can see it from far away no matter how you enter De Passage.

In other news… today it was -3C (about 27F). That is actually pretty cold for the Netherlands these days. 

Ice rinks open in multiple places in Netherlands after freezing night from nltimes.nl. It is an artificial ice rink, created by spraying many layers of water and letting them freeze overnight.

Dutch skaters out in force to enjoy the ice – before it melts from dutchnews.nl

We will have another day or two of cold before the weather freakishly jumps up to a high of 15C (60F) on Friday. I am sure all of the terraces will be overflowing with sun-starved Dutchies then.

Now that’s a mental image for you!

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Chinese New Year in The Hague (Or: 2025 edition)

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Niki

The Hague celebrated Chinese New Year today in the city centre. This holiday is always celebrated on a Saturday in The Hague, although Chinese New Year was on Wednesday this year.

We are now in the year of the snake, in case you’re wondering.

I was in the area this morning while they were setting up for the event. Here is a photo of the rooster:

Here is the snake (the star of the show this year!):

Here is a photo of the rabbit, with the Nieuwe Kerk (new church) in the background:

As you can probably see from the photos, it was a very sunny day (one of the few sunny days this month). And finally, here is a photo of what I think is a dog…:

And in other news, Dutch supermarkets want to print labels in English to combat rising prices from nltimes.nl. The supermarkets argue that the Netherlands labels could be accessed via a QR code. I don’t think I agree with this one. English is indeed everywhere in this country, especially in the larger cities. However not everyone can speak it, especially the older generation. The local expat store, Kelly’s Expat Shopping, posts signs saying Dutch labels are available on request, but their target market is obviously English speaking.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this one.

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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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