Posts Tagged With: Statues

On horseback (Or: Statue of Willem the Silent)

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Niki

During the holiday weekend (a four day weekend!) I decided to take a picture of the equestrian statue of Willem the Silent outside of the Paleis Noordeinde. I was drawn by the color of the statue against the gray-white of the building behind it. Unfortunately the sun decided to mostly disappear at that moment.

Here is a Google Maps link on where to find the statue.

In other news:

New species of tiny geckos found in India named after Vincent van Gogh from nltimes.nl

King’s Day in The Hague from denhaag.com in English. This includes the King’s Fair (= carnival) at the Malieveld, opening this Friday and running through Saturday, April 27. There’s even a geranium market on Lange Voorhout on King’s Day!

Route of Tour de France Femmes announced from denhaag.com. The Tour de France femmes will be cycling through The Hague (and Rotterdam) on August 12 this year.

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

Spring flowers (Or: Star magnolias in the Zeeheldenkwartier)

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Niki

The Zeeheldenkwartier is an area near the centre of The Hague, near Kelly’s Expat shopping. See also Google Maps. I recently took some photos of the star magnolia trees in the area:

You have to be quick with these – the trees have already started to lose some of their leaves. Here’s another look, with a monument to a politician, Hendrik Goeman Borgesius (English Wikipedia) in the foreground.

And finally, some very realistic looking graffiti:

See also this blog post about turtles in the same area, but in August.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Centrum, Flowers, Graffiti, Statues | Leave a comment

Time of day (Or: Sundial by the Kneuterdijk Palace)

Posted on February 9, 2024 by Niki

A few weeks ago I was wandering around in The Hague and I came across a piece of art. A sundial, to be exact. This was behind the Kneuterdijk palace.

Here is a close up:

Kneuterdijk palace was built in 1716. The garden where the artwork can be found is in the back of the palace. The gate was open when I walked past, so I assume it is usually open during the day. You can read more about the palace at denhaag.com (in English).

In public transportation news – random, I know – it has been a busy week in the Netherlands.

The Hague’s transportation company HTM said they would temporarily scale back the schedule for most buses and trams due to a lack of workers. (article in Dutch at omroepwest.nl). The schedule will be adjusted from next month through at least the fall.
Amsterdam’s transportation company GVB said they would run less buses and trams in the old city centre due to aging infrastructure and environmental concerns last year. This week they will meet to discuss the proposal. Current plans will make Amsterdam public transport less attractive: Rover, SME Assoc. from nltimes.nl.
But on the flip side of that you have NS, the largest transportation company in the Netherlands for domestic and international trains. Dutch railway NS promises major improvements in 2025 with 1,600 more trains weekly, also from nltimes.nl. These changes would take effect in the 2025 train schedule which starts this December. Their campaign to hire more workers seems to be going quite well.

Hopefully HTM can bring back their full schedule later this year. But I’m aware of how good I have it, considering trams currently run every 10 minutes. But I remember when it was every 7 minutes…!

Categories: Culture, Transportation | Tags: Art, Centrum, Statues | Leave a comment

Hiding behind some houses (Or: Art in de Bogaard)

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Niki

In the nearby city of Rijswijk there’s a shopping area called Bogaard stadscentrum or “Bogaard city centre”. There’s a small indoor shopping area and lots of shops on the outside as well. The area had a bit of a downturn, especially when the Mall of the Netherlands opened, but there has been some work to restore it. Part of the plans including removing some of the shopping area to add more housing instead, which makes sense.

Here’s a look at an interesting piece of art on the way back to the tram stop:

Unfortunately I don’t have too many details about it. It is cute, though!

Categories: Culture, Rijswijk | Tags: Statues | Leave a comment

Christmas time in Brussels (Or: At least he’s not cold?)

Posted on December 21, 2023 by Niki

The Manneken Pis statue has been all dressed up for the holidays in Brussels. The photo is courtesy of Roger who was in Brussels earlier in December.

The statue’s name is a reference to the fact that he is well, urinating into the fountain. And if you think that is a modern crude joke, I’m hear to tell you that the statue most likely dates from the 15th century and it’s current version was added in either 1618 or 1619 (Wikipedia). It does get stolen a lot though, so the current version on display at the fountain has been a replica since the 1960s. The original is stored in the Brussels city museum.

But at least he won’t catch a cold – he is wearing some clothes for once!

Categories: Holidays | Tags: Christmas, Statues | Leave a comment

Remnant of the past (Or: Veteran’s Day, 2023)

Posted on June 25, 2023 by Niki

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day in the Netherlands, held every year on the last Saturday in June.

Veterans Day attracts 90,000 visitors in The Hague from nltimes.nl, which has some nice photos of the event.

Here is a picture that I took of a medical vehicle. I wasn’t able to get any good pictures of the parade, unfortunately. I was just passing through and most of the city centre had crowds 10 man deep. But the marching bands I could hear sounded great.

In other Dutch news: ‘It’s every woman, it’s us’: Rotterdam falls for British statue of ordinary black woman from theguardian.com. It is a pretty interesting statue. And I love the backdrop of Rotterdam’s Centraal train station in the photo.

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: Centrum, Statues | 2 Comments

A few more photos of Amsterdam (Or: Fountains and statues)

Posted on October 5, 2021 by Niki

First, here is a photo of a statue on the side of the building. I know it is somewhere in the city centre, and somewhere in the Chinatown part of the city, but I can’t quite make out the street name on the photo. Nevertheless, it is an interesting piece of art:

And here is a fountain near the main entrance of Vondelpark:

Unfortunately this weekend trip we took already feels like it was a few months ago, even though it was only last month. Oh well – on to the next trip!

Categories: Amsterdam | Tags: Art, Statues | 2 Comments

At her feet, flowers (Or: Statue in The Hague)

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Niki

Here is another photo of flowers for you, randomly placed at the feet of a statue in The Hague. Who knows why? These are quite beautiful flowers, though.

I’m partially posting this article because I like the title: The gym before breakfast on a cafe terrace: What changes today from dutchnews.nl. Today is the first day of step 2 in the government’s plan to reopen society. Some gyms opened at 00:01 this morning, and cafés are now allowed to open from 06:00. So the title makes sense.

And here is some good news for the Netherlands: Corona patient numbers down by nearly 150, cases drop 25% in a week, also from dutchnews.nl. The last time we had such a large drop in patient numbers was January 1. That feels like a lifetime ago.

The Netherlands has a long way to go in comparison to other European countries. However we are getting there, helped in part by the vaccination program speeding up (we are closing in on 150,000 vaccines given each day).

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Centrum, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Flowers, Statues | 2 Comments

Thorbecke monument (Or: 2021 adds a face mask)

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Niki

The Thorbecke monument on the Lange Voorhout has recently received a new addition:

Interesting that only one of them is wearing a face mask…

This monument is actually made up of two parts: the modern stainless steel part (pictured above) and a marble part (not pictured) where J.R. Thorbecke, a 19th century Dutch statesman is actually shown. The two parts are supposed to represent the 19th century Thorbecke’s influence on our times. See also this page from angloinfo.com for more information in English.

In other news – what does the main train provider (NS) do when storks (a protected species in the Netherlands) build their nest above the train tracks? Answer: not much once the eggs are laid. Ooievaarsnest op bovenleidingportaal vormt brandgevaar, maar mag niet weggehaald worden from omroepwest.nl in Dutch. The same thing happened in 2020 in a different part of the Netherlands (article from dutchnews.nl in English).

Categories: Culture, The Hague | Tags: Art, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Statues | Leave a comment

Walking in sunshine (Or: Apparently this is the warmest 21 February ever)

Posted on February 21, 2021 by Niki

As usually happens these days, the Netherlands broke another record today with the warmest 21 February ever (article from omroepwest.nl in Dutch). The previous record was 14.8C (59F), although temperatures are expected to rise to 16-17C (60-62F) today.

I took a walk this morning around the city centre, stopping to take a photo of the Plein and the statue of Willem van Oranje:

There were plenty of places to soak in some sun today. You can check out the boulevard webcam at scheveningenlive.nl. Fairly busy, both in terms of pedestrians and traffic.

In other news: Investigation started as cargo plane showers metal parts on Limburg village from dutchnews.nl. (Coincdentally I read a similar thing happened in Denver, with a passenger plane.)

Also omroepwest.nl (Dutch website) has a handful of photos of places covered in ice a few weeks back and the same places after the ice melted.

Categories: The Hague | Tags: Spring, Statues, Weather | Leave a comment