Posts Tagged With: Haagsche Bluf

More Christmas trees (Or: A peek at De Haagsche Bluf)

Posted on December 27, 2020 by Niki

A few days ago I wandered into the Haagsche Bluf (denhaag.com, English) to take a quick picture of their Christmas tree. The Haagsche Bluf is a tiny, outdoor high-end shopping area tucked away in The Hague’s city centre:

In other news, Omroep West (a local news site and channel) will be showing a short documentary later today about the New Year’s Eve riots that occurred in the 70s, 80s and 90s here in The Hague. The document will air tonight at 18:00 and will be available later (I assume) on this page.

Documentaire over kerstbomen rausen in Den Haag: ‘Alles ging op het vuur’ from omroepwest.nl. Documentary about stealing Christmas trees in The Hague: ‘Everything was thrown into the fire’. Rausen is slang in The Hague’s dialect for stealing.

The Hague was well known for burning Christmas trees, cars, couches, chairs, bikes, you name it. At the height of the mania Christmas trees and other flammable materials were stolen from rival groups, occasionally leading to violent injuries and death. The damage cost the city millions of guldens every year (guldens was the Dutch currency before the euro was adopted). In the end the city started organizing their own parties so that people would come to the ‘official’ parties and cause less damage on their own.

The bonfires which happened on the beaches of Scheveningen and Duindorp were the result of the city attempting to control the riots. This worked out okay until two years ago when the bonfires were out of control and spawned fire tornados (!, video from bbc.com). Last year permits were not given to hold the bonfires again due to lingering safety issues and this year the bonfires were cancelled due to corona measures.

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Holiday lights (Or: Decorations by the Haagsche Bluf)

Posted on December 4, 2020 by Niki

I write about the Haagsche Bluf sometimes (denhaag.com, in English). It is basically a small shopping area within a larger shopping area. The entrances are obvious but it is still easy to miss if you don’t know what you are looking for. I was out for a quick walk this morning when I spotted the holiday decorations by one of the entrances:

I also spotted a Christmas tree in the distance, via another entrance, but I don’t have pictures of that one. (Another tip: I saw workers wrapping Christmas lights around a large Christmas tree just outside of the restaurant/hotel ‘t Goude Hooft.)

In other news: Piccolo’s zorgen voor ‘gastveiligheid’ in Haagse binnenstad from omroepeest.nl in Dutch. In general terms, The Hague has hired “guides” to help with the expected crowds in The Hague’s city centre. I had to ask Marco for more information about what a “piccolo” was in this context. He said it was like a hotel bellhop who assists you with anything you might need. And indeed, they do look like bellhops.

The interesting thing is that their job is to be positive. If you are wearing a mask, they will thank you for it. If you are keeping one and a half meters distance, they will thank you for it. They will also help you if you need directions (for instance if you need to know where the closest public bathroom is) or similar.

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

Terrace of green (Or: Grand CafĂ© at the Haagse Bluf)

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo is from the terrace at the Grand CafĂ© at the Haagse Bluf, where some colleagues and I had some socially distanced drinks recently.

It’s not the best photo in the world, but I didn’t want to get anyone in the photo. The restaurant/terrace is actually above the Haagse Bluf shopping area, so you’re looking down into it. It’s a pretty nice terrace and larger than you would expect considering its location in the city centre. Everywhere you look you see green – bushes, plants, wall vines, you name it.

Check out this article I read this morning from The Guardian: ‘We were the luckiest people in the world’: our month on the last lockdown cruise. Spoiler: no one gets corona on this cruise ship and the supplies don’t run out, so it’s more about how people spend their time on the ship, especially when some ports on their agenda do not allow them to dock. It is about how the last remaining group of passengers begin to band together to find news ways to pass the time.

For the most part it is a relaxing atmosphere, somewhat free of the pandemic raging around them. Example: a few days before they finally docked, they were reminded they should get their hair cut or their nails done on the ship, because who knows when they would be able to do so once they were back on dry land. Of course, the pandemic is still there, a slight tinge to everything going on around them on the ship. But it’s also outside of their world, for a time.

Anyway, I enjoyed the read. Have a good Saturday, everyone!

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Food halls (Or: Haagse Bluf in The Hague)

Posted on July 7, 2020 by Niki

Food halls have only recently become a “thing” in The Netherlands, lets say the last five years. A few examples I have been to include the Markthal in Rotterdam and MingleMush in The Hague. Apparently MingleMush re-opened today! I’ll have to schedule a (safe) visit, as it has been too long… It looks like they are open Tuesday through Saturday, 12:00-21:00.

Another food hall Marco and I still need to visit is the food hall in the Haagse Bluf, an upscale shopping area in the centre of The Hague:

It’s a great place to walk through, with very photogenic areas. Just click the tag “Haagse Bluf” at the bottom of this post to see more. My favorite photo was of the red scooter, but the photo of the iced chai tea at the end of this post serves as a great memory for me. We only had it a few times before Kaldi stopped selling it. It was delicious!

In other news:

  • It’s official: Amsterdam to London direct train without Brussels stopover now ready from nltimes.nl. Now it only takes 3 1/2 hours to get into London by train (from Rotterdam)! Considering how long you’re waiting around in an airport, that’s pretty good.
  • The Netherlands now reports deaths and hospital intakes on a weekly basis on Tuesdays. RIVM reported 19 Covid-19 deaths and 9 hospitalizations in the last week (from nltimes.nl), although due to delayed reporting not all of those were in the last week. They can say that 5 deaths occurred between June 28 and July 5, and two of the hospital admissions occurred after June 30. There were also 432 positive cases reported.
  • ICU intakes are (for the moment) still reported every day at lcps.nu. There are currently 24 Covid-19 patients in the ICU, with a low of 18 last week.
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Wandering through The Hague (Or: Noticing the little things)

Posted on March 29, 2020 by Niki

Here are more photos from the last time I went outside – you can see how deserted the Binnenhof is:

Although there was a small press conference going on further ahead, it wasn’t in this part of the area. The only people I saw outside of that were a few cyclists traveling through.

One of the other places that I visited was the Haagse Bluf, where I took a few pictures:

And a picture of a metal sculpture that looked odd enough that I just knew I had to photograph it:

Otherwise people seemed to be following the rules of staying home if possible, and not flocking to the beaches or parks like they did last week. Perhaps they realized doing so would probably mean yet more rules imposed next week…

Check out the webcam of the Scheveningen boulevard, which is as good as empty. Usually I only see one or two people walking past, with the occasional car.

Good news of the day: the Dutch company Philips delivered 100 respirators to the Dutch government yesterday (article in Dutch) to increase the overall amount of ICU beds in the country. One thing I hadn’t realized before this crisis was how few ICU beds The Netherlands had. Normally there are about 1150 beds in the entire country, with half designated for corona patients and half for non-corona patients. The minister of Health, Welfare and Sport expects there to be just over 1,000 beds on 1 April for corona patients – but keep in mind we are close to that capacity already. Currently the goal is to increase the number to 1,500.

Whether or not Philips could deliver anything on The Netherlands was in doubt – while they are a Dutch company, the factory is in the United States. Recently president Trump was considering invoking the Defense Production Act from 1950, which would jeopardize Phillips exporting to the Netherlands (or any country for that matter). Part of the issue is that a lot of the components for the ventilators are sourced globally, so it is not as if everything could be created in the U.S. alone. But it hasn’t come to that yet.

In similar news, I read this morning that Germany has 28,000 beds and 25,000 respirators… that is a crazy difference compared to the Netherlands, and not just because of the differences in populations (17 million versus 82 million). That explains why two Dutch ICU patients were moved to MĂŒnster, Germany today (article in Dutch). Germany has also been taking patients from Italy and France.

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Where are you? (Or: GrandcafĂ© Haagse Bluf)

Posted on June 11, 2017 by Niki

Here’s a random photo I took while out walking early one morning last month:

Grandcafe Haagse Bluf in The Hague The text reads “Where are you?? At the most beautiful terrace in The Hague!” This is GrandcafĂ© Haagse Bluf, part of the Haagse Bluf upscale shopping area.

And, yet another iced cappuccino and iced chai latte at Hometown coffee.

Iced coffee at Hometown coffee The Hague

What can I say… except that they are delicious!

 

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Shopping in style (Or: The Haagse Bluf)

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Niki

The shopping area ‘Haagse Blue’ is a sort of courtyard in the center of The Hague, enclosed by four streets: Dagelijkse Groenmarkt, Venestraat, Vlamingstraat and the Nieuwstraat.

haagse-bluf-in-the-hague-google-maps

This shopping space opened in 2001. Here’s a look at the entrance from Venestraat (by the corner of De Tuinen / Holland & Barrett):

haagse-bluf-entrance-at-venestraat-the-hague

Blue signs mark the entrance, but if you don’t know about it, it can be easy to miss. The entrance by Dagelijks Groenmarkt (and the Grote Kerk) is easier to spot.

walkway-to-haagse-bluf-from-venestraat-the-hague

A somewhat faded sign for the shopping area

french-riviera-fountain-in-the-haagse-bluf-the-hague

Fountain from the French Riviera; behind it is the tea-and-coffee company Kaldi. I’ll always remember them fondly for the one day they had iced chai latte! It was so delicious.

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It must be almost summer (Or: Iced coffes galore)

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Niki

This will be a very coffee-themed post… It’s almost summer (maybe) so it is a lot more fun to drink iced coffees. First up we have a frappĂ© from the library cafĂ©, Bibliotheek Den Haag. I found it so tasty I had to struggle not to drink it all up within 30 seconds.

Iced coffee at Bibliotheek Den Haag

Second we have a Starbucks drink from a coworker (her blog and her Instagram). After a while it gets old just writing your name on the side, so these days the Starbucks workers write random messages on the side. It’s raining men… and coffee!

Its raining men Starbucks cup

Next we have a summery mural from the Eat Company from the artist Sophia den Breems. I’ve previously blogged about the Spring 2016 mural here.

Summer 2016 mural by Eat Company The Hague
Iced cappuccino and iced chai tea at Kaldi The Hague 2

Finally, the latest discovery… iced chai tea by Kaldi! It’s hidden away in the Haagsche Bluf. It’s the drink on the left, next to Marco’s iced cappuccino. It was delicious, a slightly thicker concoction with the chai tea taste at the end.

Categories: Everyday purchases, The Hague | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

De Haagsche Bluf (Or: Coffee and music)

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Niki

Marco and I went shopping this afternoon — I needed a new pair of sneakers as mine had seen better days. We knew we wanted to go somewhere for coffee afterwards but we weren’t sure where. We were going to try Hometown Coffee (the last time we tried there were no free tables and it was a bit too cold to sit outside) but we ended up elsewhere.

More specifically, in De Haagsche Bluf (English), a luxury shopping area in the middle of centrum. We decided to have coffee at Kaldi (English). I had my usual coffee and Marco his cappuccino, and we split an American cookie with white chocolate chips (American = large, soft cookie). Yum.

But unexpectedly we also had some musical entertainment:

band by the Haagsche Bluf 2

It was pretty cool, as the “stage” was actually the front part of the building, simply pulled down like a drawbridge. Here is a close-up.

band by the Haagsche Bluf

Great music! Sort of jazzy, with the drums and clarinet alongside.

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