Posts Tagged With: Centrum

Christmas lights at the Grote Markt (Or: 2020 edition)

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Niki

Take a look at the Christmas lights at the Grote Markt (denhaag.com in English). Grote Markt is usually a popular bar/club hangout with an active nightlife. Things are of course pretty quiet these days, although the restaurants are still open for takeout or delivery.

The church tower in the background is the Grote Kerk (Wikipedia).

I also took a different shot to try and avoid the trucks on the right side. The bonus of the second shot was that it showed off the Haagse Harry statue:

In other news – take a peek in the mayor of The Hague’s office, courtesy of indebuurt.nl, a news website. The article is in Dutch. Or take a look at the Coronawacht, a satirical version of the Rembrandt’s The Night Watch (Wikipedia). Note: the artist admitted that he wasn’t the most skilled, and it was a very quick job, so keep that in mind. The little details are good though – like Irma Sluis making the sign for “hamsteren” in the middle behind the Dutch prime minister, or the doctors rushing past, or the markers on the ground denoting 1 and a half meters distance, or the then minister of Medical Care collapsing during a corona debate back in March (bbc.com) and resigning a day later.

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

Lange Poten on a Friday morning (Or: Lockdown edition)

Posted on December 22, 2020 by Niki

Last Friday I took a photo of the Lange Poten street during lockdown:

As you can see it was pretty quiet. I believe the only store open on this street was Kruidvat, a pharmacy/general store (for those Americans among us, think Walgreens).

If you know a bit of Dutch, check out this YouTube video entitled: “#HoujeHaags – Have a Royal Winter“, about how Haagenaars (people from The Hague) have kept strong during 2020.

Christmas card boom, as PostNL processes 14 million cards a day from dutchnews.nl. On a normal day they process about 7 million cards. Crazy! I would like to think I helped out a bit with that surge.

Dutch scientists help find way to predict serious coronavirus cases, also from dutchnews.nl.

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

Christmas trees (Or: Another weekend of too many shoppers)

Posted on December 13, 2020 by Niki

Check out this Christmas tree which I saw by the Plein in The Hague:

Christmas tree near the statue of Willem de Oranje

It’s a cute Christmas tree, but I will admit it looks like someone had a bit too much fun with strips of toilet paper at the bottom. I assume it is actually tinsel, though.

I saw an even more creative Christmas tree over on the r/thenetherlands Reddit page:

Alternatieve kerstboom op Onze Lieve Vrouweplein in Maastricht. from thenetherlands

(Alternative Christmas tree in Maastricht at the “Our Lady plaza”.) Those are café/restaurant chairs. Since the cafés and restaurants are only open for takeout or delivery these days, why not re-use them (or store them) as a Christmas tree? The best part: In the back on the left of the photo you see the hint of another Christmas tree.

The last few days have seen the number of coronavirus cases skyrocket. We’re now back to around 10,000 cases a day. There was an emergency meeting of the safety regions and the government today, with a few additional meetings tomorrow. It is unclear if they will hold a press conference this coming Tuesday or if they will hold it tomorrow, one day earlier than they usually would (press conferences generally happen on Tuesdays).

There are a few measures that could be taken:

  • closure of ‘through’ or ‘transfer’ locations where a lot of people meet, for example libraries, movie theatres, zoos, cinemas, etc.
  • closure of all not-essential stores (everything except supermarkets, pharmacies, etc.)
  • closing of schools

Of these I think either the first two are more likely. Interestingly the Netherlands actually did not close essential stores during the first wave back in March / April. It was always the store’s choice to close or not. However, Germany has also announced a hard lockdown that will last through 10 January so some are speculating that German tourists will travel across the border to do their Christmas shopping here unless we also go into a hard lockdown as well.

New coronavirus infections near 10,000 as ministers discuss new measures from dutchnews.nl

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

Early Christmas present from Roger (Or: Baby Yoda cuteness!)

Posted on December 12, 2020 by Niki

Roger surprised Marco and I with an early present: a Christmas ornament featuring “The Child” from the Star Wars Mandalorian TV show. Otherwise known by most as “Baby Yoda”.

And the view from the side:

In other news – unfortunately it was busy again today in The Hague city centre. In the tweet below you first have four photos from Regio15.nl showing the city centre (including the last photo, of the ever-present line by Primark) and then at the bottom of the tweet you have a message from The Hague’s mayor reminding people to pay more attention to the corona rules (spread out your Christmas purchases, shop online, keep 1.5 meters distance from others and wear a face mask where needed):

Categories: Friends&Family, Holidays | Tags: , | Leave a comment

A new addition in Grote Markt (Or: Toilets)

Posted on December 6, 2020 by Niki

Kudos to The Hague for putting temporary public toilets on the Grote Markt. The most shocking of all: I didn’t see any signs that you had to pay, which would be quite normal in the Netherlands. Generally the only free bathrooms are found in restaurants or cafés.

Normally these barriers would be used for the Royal Christmas Fair. However, the fair was cancelled so the barriers could be put to a different use. And public toilets are very important right now. At the moment restaurants and cafés are only allowed to be open for takeout or delivery, so there not many public toilets available to shoppers at the moment.

I also saw some toilets by the plaza outside the Tweede Kamer parliamentary building, so it is not just on the Grote Markt. (Oh, and for American readers: yes, that’s TJ Maxx in the background. However in Europe the company goes by the name TK Maxx.)

Above is a tweet from the Scheveningen police, wishing everyone a nice Sinterklaas evening. Everyone opens their presents from Sinterklaas on the evening of December 5, aka last night.

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

National Cookie Day (Or: Gimmie gimmie gimmie!)

Posted on December 5, 2020 by Niki

(Okay, National Cookie Day was yesterday, but shouldn’t every day be National Cookie Day?)

I am salivating a bit after seeing this tweet from Disney Parks:

My favorite is the Molasses crackle cookies mentioned in the linked article (direct link to the recipe PDF at Disney.com).

In other news: Oude foto’s: Sinterklaas in Den Haag door de jaren heen, also from indebuurt.nl. Old photos of The Hague’s Sinterklaas throughout the years. One reason to click on the link is to see the pictures of gas masks being advertised as Sinterklaas presets in 1940.

Also of note: the benches at the Grote Markt between Hema and Blokker/Xenos are a bit more ‘corona proof’ these days: Coronaproof: Je kunt weer veilig op de bankjes aan de Grote Marktstraat zitten from indebuurt.nl. (Corona proof: You can now safely sit on the bench at the Grote Markt.) Not that many things in life are truly corona proof…

And if you are not currently in the Netherlands and wonder why I haven’t mentioned the number of corona cases lately… it is because the number fluctuates too wildly to be of much use:

The pink lines are the number of positive tests and the red line is the 7 day average.

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Christmas displays (Or: The view at CASA)

Posted on October 28, 2020 by Niki

CASA is a home goods store on the Grote Marktstraat. I decided to take a few photos of their Christmas display for you:

And here’s a look from the escalator:

I don’t think it will be that much longer before we put up our Christmas tree. We’re home a lot these days, so why not make it extra festive?

In other news:

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

Rainy days (Or: Plein in The Hague)

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Niki

Last weekend I was a bit too early getting outside and had to wait for a local store to open, so I decided to take a walk. I took a photo of the Plein while dodging rain drops:

This is the same Plein that I was talking about during yesterday’s blog post, with Dutchies partying minutes before the partial lockdown started. I serendipitously ran into a coworker right after taking this photo, so that was unexpected and nice.

But, I must celebrate the fact that it has finally been dry the last few days! I think we’ve had rain every day for the last three weeks or so. My rain jacket certainly felt loved.

Michelin star restaurant stops sly scheme to skirt Covid rules from nltimes.nl. During the partial lockdown restaurants and cafes are closed except for takeaway. An exception to that rule is hotel restaurants which can remain open to feed guests. A restaurant and hotel decided to create a package where you pay 10 euros extra to be registered as a hotel guest, although you don’t stay overnight. The 10 euro lets you eat at the restaurant – but you need to make sure you use the hotel entrance to access the restaurant. Heh.

And here is a short article in Dutch from omroepwest.nl, because it’s a cute story: Hond pakt in z’n eentje de bus en eindigt op politiebureau (Dog takes the bus alone and ends up at the police station). A bus driver noticed a dog in her bus Wednesday evening, but didn’t think anything of it because there were other passengers in the bus. Until the driver got to her last stop, with no passengers left, and noticed the dog was still there. The story has a happy ending: she took the dog to the police station where its chip was scanned. As the article writes “The fare skipper got a warning and a free ride home to its owners”.

The best part? The image in the article shows the dog, its face not visible behind a seat. The caption reads: “The dog didn’t want to be recognized in the photo”.

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Rainy days (Or: October is upon us)

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Niki

Rain rain rain. That’s all it does these days. It’s cold and wet and dreary and (even without the corona issues) it would be the perfect time to stay inside.

This morning I searched my drawer for an appropriate sweater to wear. I don’t have many – I found one, which is actually one more than I expected to find. I don’t usually wear sweaters, but maybe that will change now that I am at home and not in a climate controlled workplace. We’ll see…

Some interesting things I came across today:

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

Bird and flowers (Or: New graffiti in the Wagenstraat)

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Niki

Marco and I spotted some beautiful graffiti in the Wagenstraat in The Hague’s city centre.

Beautiful, isn’t it? if you live in The Hague and you want to check it out yourself, go to the Wagenstraat and then find the side street called Wagenstraat (no, that’s not a typo). The side street is around the corner from a Chinese restaurant, Kaa Luu Palace.

For something completely different, check out this article over at dutchnews.nl: Cameras in Veluwe capture clearest footage of wolf in NL to date. Yep, wolves! In the Netherlands. Yikes. But good for the ecosystem. The Veluwe is a hilly, forest-rich area in the Gelderland province of the Netherlands. See also the Wikipedia article about the Veluwe in English. It sounds like a pretty relaxing place to visit. If you avoid the wolves that is!

Categories: The Hague | Tags: , | 2 Comments

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