Posts Tagged With: Flowers

Flowers by Rabbijn Maarsenplein (Or: A touch of Spring)

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Niki

It’s still not that warm yet in the Netherlands. Maybe 10C (50F), depending on the day? But you can still find color if you wander through the city centre. For example these flowers at the Rabbijn Maarsenplein (a plaza):

The heavy stone planters were added by the city sometime this month, as they weren’t there the last time I wandered through this area. (You can see the major shopping street Grote Marktstraat in the far distance.)

In other, very random news: Poolse vrouw bang voor onbekend schepsel in boom, blijkt croissant te zijn from nu.nl. Or, Polish woman afraid of unknown creature in tree, turns out to be a croissant. Not sure why her being Polish matters, but okay. Apparently the “creature” was resting in the tree for a few days.

T Rex walked the earth slowly but was helped by its tail, Dutch researchers find from dutchnews.nl. Similar to how humans swing their arms and legs when moving, the dinosaur could have also been swinging its tail up and down.

The chips brand Lay’s has three new flavors in the Netherlands: Subway teriyaki, KFC original recipe chicken and Pizza Hut Margherita (lays.nl). I haven’t seen the flavors “in the wild” yet, but it is only a matter of time. Starting in May if you buy a bag you can use it to get your second meal free at that restaurant. Lays is known for some weird flavors. One that managed to stick around permanently in this country was “baguette with herb butter” (stokbrood met kruidenboter).

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Lazy Fridays (Or: Onward to the weekend)

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Niki

Yay, we have reached the weekend! Did you know the Keukenhof, the largest garden in Europe, is now open on a limited basis? Keukenhof, cultural sites start welcoming visitors again from nltimes.nl. It is part of the government’s testing expansion (Netherlands to allow small crowds at football matches, theaters this month, also nltimes.nl). You can see the full list of participating institutions and dates at rijksoverheid.nl (in Dutch). The visitor needs to have a negative corona test that is not older than 40 hours. The tests are free but you need to go to certain locations to get tested and you must have the CoronaCheck app.

In other news: Rotterdam, The Hague announce bid to host Tour de France start from nltimes.nl. The bid would either be for 2024 or 2025. Rotterdam would host the opening stage, with an additional stage from Rotterdam to The Hague. The previous time the Netherlands hosted a few stages was back in 2015, when Utrecht was the host twice.

And Fietsers weg uit de Grote Marktstraat? Dat kan, maar gaat ten koste van parkeerplekken from omroepwest.nl. (Removing cyclists from the Grote Marktstraat? That is possible, but it will come at the cost of parking). The city has determined that it is possible to remove cyclists from the shopping area of the Grote Marktstraat, the large shopping street in The Hague’s city centre. This is because cyclists can use the parellel streets of Gedempte Gracht and Gedempte Burgwal, but 54 parking spots would need to be removed in the latter street to make sure cyclists have enough room.

Of course, the article then goes on to say that there is a possibility that cyclists can cycle tvia the Grote Markstraat before 11:30 daily, when the shops open. But that just means people won’t know the difference and will keep cycling through the area no matter the time of day. Although the city did successfully manage to ban scooters from using the Grote Markstraart so I guess anything is possible… we shall see!

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A new video from Keukenhof (Or: Beautiful tulips–online)

Posted on March 26, 2021 by Niki

Unfortunately Keukenhof (English Wikipedia), one of the largest flower gardens in the world, won’t be able to open this year either. They have decided to post two short films a week instead so that people can see the work they put into getting the park ready.

Keukenhof ready to receive visitors – in the meantime, its flowers go online from dutchnews.nl

Dutch facility gets go-ahead to produce more AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines from nltimes.nl. The facility, based in nearby Leiden, is finally able to start officially producing AstraZeneca vaccines. This after the company took their time in submitting an official request for approval to the European Medical Agency. The dutchnews.nl website has more on the controversy surrounding the Dutch factory.

And finally, Utrecht researchers testing bracelet for identifying Covid symptoms from nltimes.nl (based on monitoring temperature, respiration, skin moisture and more).

Happy Friday, everyone!

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Spring flowers at the Lange Voorhout (Or: A burst of color)

Posted on February 28, 2021 by Niki

First we had snow at the Lange Voorhout, and now a few weeks later we have beautiful spring flowers.

Or a close up:

The purple, yellow and white flowers bloom every year for a few weeks and always bring a bit of color to the area. Check out where Lange Voorhout is on Google Maps. It is around the corner from the Binnenhof, Tweede Kamer, and the Hofvijver (pond).

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Chocolate tulips (Or: A gift from HR)

Posted on November 14, 2020 by Niki

Last week my company’s Human Resources department mailed us a surprise gift:

The note says: “The month of November has started with its beautiful autumnal colors but also rain and storm. HR has prepared an enclosed gift which already looks ahead to springtime. We hope you will enjoy this small token!” Cute.

I heard from some colleagues that their gift didn’t even survive an hour in their kid-infested house…

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On to the weekend (Or: Supernatural and chili)

Posted on October 9, 2020 by Niki

Friday! For dinner Marco made slow cooker chili. The recipe was from my old Cuisinart slow cooker that I had back when I lived in the US. We haven’t made this recipe in ages, but I am glad we finally did. It makes plenty of leftovers so later in the weekend or early next week we will have chili with tortilla chips. Yummm.

It almost felt like a normal Friday evening (in a non-2020 year): for the first time a long time we had a Supernatural episode to watch. Like many TV shows, this one went on hiatus after the corona crisis started, with only 7 episodes to go in the final 14th season. Most of our normal TV shows have not returned yet, so we are watching more shows via Disney+ or Apple TV these days (if you’re a gamer, I highly recommend Apple TV’s Mythic Quest).

In corona news, the prime minister said they wait until Monday to see if the situation improves (nltimes.nl). Otherwise I expect a press conference on Tuesday. The good news is that the government said they would also be working on a roadmap for corona measures, so that it is more clear what measures could be expected in various scenarios. It definitely feels like the government always reacts, versus acts.

There have been some anti-lockdown and anti-corona law demonstrations in The Hague in the last few days (everyone comes to The Hague to protest, since this is where parliament is). There were 15 arrests on Wednesday evening and 80 arrests yesterday evening (!). I walked past parliament this morning and saw a few people with signs outside the Tweede Kamer, although they were just standing around and not actively protesting yet. They probably still needed to have their coffee.

On a lighter note… Keukenhof (a massive tulip garden not far from The Hague and only open a few months of the year) started planting tulip bulbs for the 2021 season. By Christmas they need to plant 7 million bulbs – yikes!

I mentioned Keukenhof a few times earlier this year because the park never even opened before the crisis hit. Instead they created lots of videos and posted them to their website and YouTube, getting 22 million views (in a normal year they get about 1.5 million in person visits). If you want to see the videos they posted earlier this year, check out their YouTube channel and the “Keukenhof Virtually Open 2020” series.

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Keeping an eye out (Or: Alleyway in The Hague)

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo comes from Oog in ‘t Zeilstraat which literally translates to “Eye in the sail street”. A lot of Dutch phrases find their origin in the sea. Eye in the sail refers to the sailor up in the crow’s nest – their job is to “keep an eye out” for any trouble.

According to indebuurt.nl, though, the street is named after a house in 1654 which had the name Oog in ‘t Zeilstraat. Perhaps the house was named after the phrase? And of course it is partially hidden, but you do see a least one bicycle in the photo.

After the press conference yesterday, Amsterdam and Rotterdam decided to require face masks in parts of the city (article at nltimes.nl) from 5 August. Local intervention does seem more useful than country-wide intervention – Amsterdam and Rotterdam reported 76 and 68 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, while there were almost no cases reported in other parts of the country.

On to the weekend (and great temperatures tomorrow)!

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Gray clouds above, flowers below (Or: Buitenhof scenes)

Posted on July 29, 2020 by Niki

Earlier this week Marco took this photo of the Buitenhof for me. What do you think?

Of course you probably notice the flowers first, but the clouds above do deserve a glance as well. A touch of gray.

There was a press conference earlier this evening. The main topic was whether or not there be a country-wide requirement to wear a face mask at all times when outside. At the moment you are only required to wear a face mask when using public transportation.

The government announced that there will no national requirement to wear one, although regions will have more power to take action locally (article from nltimes.nl). The government also looked into whether or not the quarantine policy for holiday travellers should be strengthened if they were returning from an area with a high number of coronavirus cases.

And another article, this one from Omroep West: Terrassen mogen uur langer open tijdens warme Haagse nachten. It’s an article about how terraces can stay open longer during the summer if the temperature is over 25C/77F Thursday through Sunday. The city government will look at the upcoming weekend’s temperature every Thursday and announce if terraces can be open longer that weekend. ☀️

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Watching over the city (Or: Statue of Haagse Harry)

Posted on July 18, 2020 by Niki

The weather today is just as good as predicted! Lots of sun, lots of warmth. I decided to take a photo of the Haagse Harry statue over by the Grote Markt plaza:

We don’t have any big plans this weekend, which has been great after a long week of work. In addition to enjoying some sun earlier I also played around with Affinity Designer a bit this morning, working on some isometric designs.

I’m also in the middle of reading My Year of Rest and Relaxation in Dutch but I have to admit some of the humor is either too dark or gross for me. Not enough to stop reading, but definitely enough to ask myself “What the heck?” sometimes.

In other news:

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On a dreary, wet day (Or: Where did the weekend go?)

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Niki

Rain, rain go away

Come again another day

I think the morning and early afternoon were relatively dry, but how would I know? Work kept me inside sadly. By the time everything got sorted in the late afternoon, the sky was a dark grey and rain was looming. But Marco and I both needed fresh air, so we did not let that stop us. And sure, we got rained on, but at least we got our fresh air…

But in the spirit of that, I’ll share a photo of the Palace Gardens which I took last week:

Lovely blue skies, great temperatures, all you could want without ever having to leave your hometown.

Although that one stray tree branch in the top middle of the photo does look a bit out of place. Anyone have a ladder and a tree cutter?

In other news, The Hague libraries will be opening up a bit more starting tomorrow (1 July), as the Dutch government has relaxed some of the corona measures. Unfortunately it is still only open 12:00-17:00 Monday through Saturday. But you can go there to study, read newspapers, visit the café for coffee and snacks, etc. You can also use library computers for up to 60 minutes per day. See more (in Dutch) at Studeren, uw krantje lezen en meer: veel kan weer!

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