Kings Day and other Dutch stuff

Yesterday was Kings Day which is the day the Netherlands goes orange. It's basically party day – a national holiday specifically for the purposes of consuming large volumes of alcohol and listening to live music all in the name of celebrating the reigning monarch’s birthday (this year King Willem was 50). Here in The Hague we found it a somewhat subdued affair compared to Haarlem where the party always starts quite early with a mass secondhand sale of household goods – you simply set up a stall outside your house and sell off your old junk. In the Hague itself there were very few people selling off their old junk – maybe a sign of the city’s large international community, or the fact that people in the Hague are so posh they don’t have old junk.

There were several pop-up stages for live music around the city centre, and pop-up bars – of course, and a huge fun fair selling the largest bags of candyfloss I think I’ve ever seen. (The Dutch have very sweet teeth). The Dutch for funfair is kermis – an easy word to remember when learning a language by word association. Think Kermit the frog on a big wheel.

Another Dutch word I have recently learned is woonwagonwooner.  This little gem I picked up whilst watching an edition of Midsumer Murders with Dutch subtitles. It was used as a translation for ‘traveller’ – not someone setting off on a long journey but someone who lives in a caravan (literally living-wagon-dweller).  I’m still trying to think of a suitable word association analogy although with the days being ticked off now until I move back to the UK permanently it’s a little too late to be worrying about learning Dutch now.

Last weekend was the Bloemencorso – another wonderful Dutch word.  The Bloemencorso is a flower parade, and it takes all day to make its way from the bublfields of Nordwijkerhout, near the Keukenhof Gardens to Haarlem. We headed up to Haarlem to see the floats parked up on Sunday morning, bumped into our old neighbours, and thought to ourselves all over again how lucky we were to spend two years living in such a beautiful city. 

So, it's been a week of doing lots of Dutch stuff - which also involved a hazardous trek to the supermarket avoiding hail and sleet showers, as well as ducking falling masonry from men working four stories high on unnetted scaffolding. and been run over by a man and a dog on a motorbike. 

Meet the Neighbours

Since we arrived in the Hague I have to admit I haven’t exactly gone out of my way to make new acquaintances. There are plenty of ex-pat groups available, but with old friends just a train ride away in Haarlem and Amsterdam, it all felt like too much effort to start all over again – especially as I always knew my stay in the Hague was due to be short-term. Making new friends on the ex-pat circuit is relatively easy – as long as you are prepared to put yourself out there and join in.  However, after eight years of travelling, having to tackle another round of ‘first dates’ to introduce myself to a new friend set just seemed one hurdle too many.  

I was hoping that living in an apartment block might provide some sort of social hub – after all we made good friends living in a similar complex in the US.  I suppose a communal swimming pool and endless sunshine does increase the opportunity for social-action with the neighbours.  Here we’re not quite so lucky. I‘m not naturally the most out-going of people but I will generally smile and say hello if I pass someone on the stairs or in the corridor. It still surprises me that there are people who can stand next to you in an elevator and pretend you don’t exist, but it happens. I could blame it on the language/cultural barrier. The Dutch are not known for their small talk, or their manners (twice last week in the supermarket I was the victim of trolley bashing by the boy filling the shelves – no 'excuse me', no apology) but the majority of our immediate neighbours are not Dutch. The Hague has a huge international population.

Fortunately, having set myself the target of cracking on with novel number two while novel number one does the round of publishers, I’ve been quite content to hide myself away with my computer. When I need a break I head out to track down the evening meal at Albert Heijn, when I need the exercise I head off to the gym for a swim.  It’s a lifestyle that would have sent a social butterfly completely bonkers, but fortunately I am not a social butterfly, although the insanity issue is still up for debate.

So anyhow, the whole purpose of this post is basically to show off a photograph of our more friendly neighbours – a pair of swans who have built their nest in the middle of a nearby canal,

and a mother hen, spotted not nearby, but wandering around a park in Breda. We visited Breda over the Easter weekend, mainly to tick it off the list.

The Dutch do like their captive animals. As I said in my last post, most towns will have a deer park, and many neighbourhoods will have a small city farm with goats, cows and hens. Presumably this little family of chickens have escaped from some such establishment – so good luck to them.

As for the pony in the next pic, we came across this on the beach, in a pizza restaurant. In my opinion there is definitely a place in society for ponies, but not as an Easter display, and definitely not when I’m sat in eating a restaurant.

A Dutch Spring

When I was deliberating whether to return to the Netherlands or not after my winter break in the UK, Mr T assured me that the Netherlands was due to have its hottest spring ever. As luck would have it, it appears he is right. Last weekend although not quite as hot as certain parts of the UK,  the temperature hit 22 and the Dutch flocked to the beach.

We were early birds, determined to beat the rush. Catching up with old friends from Haarlem we  headed to Scheveningen on the bikes for brunch. It doesn’t take much for the Dutch to strip off (as I have learned to my cost since joining the Health Club) and the sun worshippers were already stretching out on the sand as we settled into one of the many pop-up beach restaurants.

A typical Dutch breakfast - and all for me!!

Scheveningen was packed. Trams were sardine cans, off-loading day-trippers in their thousands, but of course it was a one-day wonder. By Monday the temperature had halved and it was back to coats and scarves.

A Dutch spring is of course most famous for the tulips. The previous week I’d met up with friends from the US who were spending a few days in Amsterdam. I’d offered my useful travel tips which included booking their tour of the Anne Frank house five years in advance to avoid the three hour queue and visiting the bulb fields. Fake news travels fast – they’d been informed the first week in April was too early to catch the tulips.  Fortunately with my insider knowledge I was able to put them right. It always helps to know a local.

(not wanting to mislead this is actually a picture from last year but you can get the gist)

And talking of locals, I’ve been continuing my exploration of The Hague and encountering the wildlife at close quarters. Like most Dutch towns and villages, the Hague has a deer park, which seems quite a bizarre thing to find right outside the main central station, but there you go. 

All countries have their customs, and it will soon be time for Kings Day, where everyone wears orange, plays loud music and drinks a lot, and then it will be Bevrijdingsdag, which is a Liberation Day celebration which also involves (funnily enough) lots of drinking and loud music, followed by graduation day in June, when schoolbags are hoisted onto flag poles (and probably also involves lots of drinking and loud music).  By then, hopefully, we’ll also have had another hot sunny day.

More locals out for a stroll