Last month while visiting Rijswijk I spotted a stork walking around in the grass. I snapped a photo of their adventure (with a good zoom, to not disturb it):
I remembered that I had seen storks in this area before a few years back. Sure enough, I turned around and the nest was in the same place, high up at the top of a building. The area underneath the nest looked cleaner back then, though…
I also spotted some cherry blossom trees:
And a close up:
Very pretty, if you ask me!
If you will be in The Hague at the end of the month, don’t forget The Life I Live festival is soon approaching on Sunday, April 26. This a free event held the day before King’s Day in The Hague’s city centre, with a handful of podiums set up at the Grote Markt, Lange Voorhout, Kerkplein and Plaats. The full program is also available at indebuurt.nl.
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!
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.
Last weekend we had gorgeous weather in the Netherlands. The temperatures were around 17C/62F, give or take, with lots of sun to go around. Dutchies were out en masse at every available restaurant terrace with sun.
The flowers also responded immediately. Here is a look at the flowers in Huijgenspark, a park not far from the Holland Spoor train station:
Here’s a look at the basketball court in the morning sun. The tree trunks always catch my eye.
And here is a close up of the flowers:
As you can see, some have blossomed already, with more to come. Last weekend was so nice!
Yesterday was International Women’s Day. While I was at the hairdresser one of the workers passed out roses to all the women working there and getting their hair done. I’m not really a flower person – neither Marco or I have a green thumb between us – but I wasn’t about to say no to a rose. Except for the miniature thorns on the side. Ouch.
After my hair appointment I went to Kelly’s expat store to pick up some very important supplies, including cinnamon raisin bagels and Rold Gold pretzels. (The pretzels are a newer offering at Kelly’s but one I appreciate. They are usually my go-to snack when visiting the US.) After making my purchase, the cashier asked if I wanted a flower. I was amused, but said yes, since it would make for a funny story on the way home. I chose a pretty pink flower to go with the rose I already had.
When I got home I told Marco about the two flowers I received, why and where. I mentioned that I had to take out my contacts but after that I would try to find something to put them in, since we don’t have vases lying around (anymore).
When I came back I noticed Marco had found the perfect vase for me:
Asahi is easily one of my favorite beers, so it was a logical choice for us.
Bonus picture – here’s what we had with the beer last Friday:
To celebrate the weekend, Marco made marinated salmon with pandan rice and sugar snaps on the side. There’s also some pickled ginger hiding in the back. It was delicious, and the beer paired well with it.
A few weeks back Marco and I walked through the Paleistuin while waiting for a dinner reservation at Niko, a Japanese restaurant. I took a photo of some of the flowers at the Paleistuin (=Palace Garden).
It was a just a bit of colour to break through all of the green. I think it is a bit too late in the year to see lots of different colors at these gardens, unfortunately.
Here is a look at some of the food we had at Niko:
Above is a salmon dish – and my favorite photo.
Above is an eel dish. I am not the biggest fan of eel, but in small quantities it’s fine. The cucumber underneath was de-li-cious, though, after soaking in that awesome sauce.
Above is a beef tartare dish. I don’t like anything with egg that still looks like egg (cooked or uncooked), but once someone else stirs it in I’m fine with it. It was pretty tasty, actually.
Last week I was walking along Anna Paulownastraat, a street in The Hague not far from the Peace Palace (Wikipedia). I had to stop and take a picture of some of the flowers by one of the front doors. The color of the flower against the black door worked really well:
Last week I was walking around getting my usual dose of summer vitamin D when I came across the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives). It’s actually the temporary location, but considering the renovation of the Binnenhof won’t be done until at least 2028 it doesn’t feel that temporary.
On the side of the Tweede Kamer, not far from the National Library of the Netherlands or Central Station, you can find some pretty flowers. Of course, their primary use is to be a roadblock so that you can’t ram into the building, but okay. Let’s be positive.
The Binnenhof observation deck that I mentioned in a previous blog post will be opening on 11 July. There’s an article in Dutch about it at binnenhofrenovatie.nl. I don’t think I will (ever) be going up it, but maybe you will. You’re probably braver than I am!
As I noted in my last blog post, Marco and I visited the BlowUp Art exhibition which was on the Hofvijver. Sunday was the last day. I also took a few photos of some gorgeous flowers on the platform which I just have to share.
And a close up so you can see the raindrops on the petals:
Life in the Hague 