As noted, everything is closed at the moment due to the lockdown. With the exception of course of supermarkets, pharmacies and other essential stores. It doesn’t seem to help that much though, as the omicron wave has hit the Netherlands (nltimes.nl in English).
Here is a look at the Pathé movie theatre on the Spui:
Marco, Roger and I were able to squeeze in one last movie on Saturday morning before the lockdown arrived on Sunday. We booked the tickets for Spider-Man: No Way Home a week previously, as soon as they went on sale. We even had to wait in a virtual queue for an hour to get them! In the end, Roger was the lucky one who was able to get into the site and book tickets (after some technical difficulties as the website and app kept crashing due to the Spider-Man demand). They were great seats, too.
I must say the movie theatre itself was definitely doing everything they could to take it a safe experience. You were required to show your CoronaCheck app (vaccinated, tested or recovered) to get in and wear a facemack until you were sitting in your seat. There was also social distancing in the theater; the seats around your group’s purchase were blocked out automatically and not available to purchase.
Since we are Marvel geeks we already had tickets for a second showing for Spider-Man on Sunday morning, but we will unfortunately get an automatic refund for those. We understand how lucky we were to be able to see it on Saturday, even. And Mom, if you’re reading this: what Marco and I told you about Spider-Man was an integral part of the movie! (“Hey Mom, did you know…?”)
Christmas tree at Pathé Spui near the drink/food area. Actually it is right next to the Starbucks coffee machines. And the rooster on the right side is because Pathe’s logo is a rooster.
Last week I snapped a photo of the Ridderzaal from the side (here is how it looks from the front, as most tourists photograph it):
This area is also public, of course. Not many people end up on this side, though. The Ridderzaal is most well known for Prinsesdag (Little Prince Day, English Wikipedia) in September where the King gives a speech from the Ridderzaal. You can read more about the Ridderzaal at the English Wikipedia page.
Tuschinski Amsterdam uitgeroepen tot mooiste bioscoop ter wereld from nos.nl (Tuschinski Amsterdam named “the most beautiful movie theatre in the world”) by British magazine Time Out. You can also check out the English Wikipedia page for the movie theatre. I have never been there, of course. But it is pretty cool that a movie theatre owned by Pathé, a Dutch chain, could be named the most beautiful in the world.
Of course, it is completely logical that the movie theatre chain is required to close shops and buffets, since restaurants and cafés are closed right now as well. And before you start hoping you can bring in McDonald’s or a full pizza, Pathé did say by “snacks” they meant popcorn and chips. Darn.
A bit less bizarre, more “lucky”:
Ypres chestnut tree battered but unbowed by wars wins Belgian award from theguardian.com. Short story: 160 year old tree survives repeated bombings during WWI. It grows back with four separate trunks (!). It then avoids being chopped up and turned into firewood during WWII.
The Netherlands also has their own award: De boom van het jaar (The tree of the year). Check out the trees that were nominated last year. I think my pick has to be the 9th tree, from the Overijssel province. I mean, the tree even goes through the roof of a tiny house. To clarify, it is not a house anyone lived in, but rather a tiny “house” that was used to bake bread apparently.
Wordt de Bakspieker-eik op landgoed Twickel in Lattrop-Breklenkamp nationale Boom van het Jaar 2019? 🌲🏆 En gaat de Overijsselse inzending dan meedingen naar de titel European Tree of the Year? Breng nu jouw stem uit via: https://t.co/6SYN9SUzMZ. pic.twitter.com/jO8FDJOeMd
Note: there are no spoilers for Captain Marvel in this post.
Last night was a fun night with Marco and Roger. First off, we watched the Ajax-Real Madrid Champions League football game. Amsterdam’s Ajax team lost the previous match against Real Madrid 2-1 so they needed to win by at least two goals last night to proceed to the quarter finals. And that they did – winning 4-1! The coolest goal was the last one Ajax made (YouTube).
The best part about the game was that it started at 9pm and ended around 11pm. Which was really good for us, since after that we were going to a midnight showing of Captain Marvel. Generally movies premiere on Wednesdays in the Netherlands, and since 12:01am is also Wednesday… yeah.
Fun thing: I noticed that the movie theatre had ruby chocolate KitKats. If you’ve never tried ruby chocolate, you should. It is a bit sour, but still sweet like chocolate.
movie theatre snacks!
While we were waiting in the downstairs lobby (the upper part was roped off so they could clean the theatre from the previous showing) I took a picture of The Hague’s library:
looking down at The Hague Central Library (library=bibliotheek)
The movie was pretty good. I liked it and was definitely entertained even though I was sleep deprived. I thought the cat stole the show. More about the cat here, with a few minor spoilers if you don’t read the Captain Marvel comics.
And lastly: of course there is a Stan Lee tribute. The theatre clapped for that.
Earlier in the month we saw Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2. Great movie! While there I was able to check out the new coffee options, as the Pathé movie theatre by Spui now has self-service Starbucks coffee.
Apparently it’s been around for a few months but this is the first movie I had seen since they installed it.
Of course you don’t have all of the options you would with a full-service Starbucks, but it is still some nice coffee, especially when viewing a movie in the morning!
A few weeks back Marco, Roger and I went to Pathé Spuimarkt (the local movie theater) to see X-Men: Apocalypse. Marco was pleasantly surprised to see a newly installed frozen Fanta machine.
One of his favorite treats when visiting America is ICEEs (a type of frozen slushie). Of course ICEEs are even better than Fanta’s frozen drinks, but when you’re not in America you take what you can get!
It is almost time to go see Deadpool! Marco, Roger and I have tickets later in the week to see it (it came out today). It’s what I like to call a superhero movie for adults…
The advertising is rather crass, although remarkably funny. Marco says he almost wishes the advertising would continue on even after the film is released, as it’s that good (read: weird/crazy/unexpected).
My favorite is the billboard that makes the movie seem like a romantic comedy, just in time for Valentine’s Day. (There is also a synopsis about the film at that link if you are interested.)
If you want to see more of the crazy marketing Fox has done in advance of Deadpool, check out the WIRED article.
Finally, I’m a geek. I’ve also blogged about the movie candy when we went and saw Thor: A Dark World. Or when I posted about Iron Man 3.
Last Sunday morning Marco, Roger and I went to the movie theater in town to see the new Thor movie, Thor: The Dark World. As sometimes happens, this movie was released in the Netherlands a full week before it was released in America.
The movie was pretty good – the pacing was pretty nice and I didn’t feel that the middle or the end of the movies dragged too much. It was nice to see more character development with the side characters (including Darcy) and of course Thor as eye candy is always good. They have a shirtless scene near the beginning for Thor-approving fans!
Before the movie I took a quick moment to take a picture of the candy options, although it’s not really something I would ever purchase (even ignoring the insane movie theater prices):
As you can see it is not that much different from the setup of a typical American movie theater – similar candy is offered there as well. The one thing I was tempted by were the sour bears on the left side of the 2nd picture, near the bottom. Yum, sour candy!
Life in the Hague 