Marnix Rueb was the author who gave the Hague its own strip hero, Haagse Harry, or The Hague’s Harry. Marnix died Oktober 23, 2014. January 26, 2016 a statue of Harry was placed in the city centre. As you can see has it a special FaceBook like hand at the back as ever as anarchistic as Harry was.
Will be publishing more and more The Hague photo’s as Picfair inspires me to do so.
Nieuwe Kerk or New Church of The Hague was built between 1649 and 1656 according to a design by Pieter Noorwits, carpenter. Currently it is a a music hall, mainly for classical ensembles and choirs.
A Tweet of the @CityOfTheHague referring to this post on the Official The Hague site inspired me to this post.
October 7, 1919, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines was incorporated. It is the oldest commercial airline. It was granted the status of “Royal Airline” by the then Queen of The Netherlands Wilhelmina in 1919. It used to have its headoffice in The Hague, but that moved to the Amsterdam area long ago.
The day before yesterday, at the occasion of KLM’s 91st anniversary, the president of KLM presented house number 91 in its series of Delft Blue houses which is a “give away” for its ueber passengers who fly the KLM intercontinental ueber business class.
Number 91 of the series is the Dutch Antilles House in The Hague.
At the same time a miniature copy of the Antilles house was placed in the miniature city Madurodam here in The Hague.
Notes:
Update
Geertje has the (Dutch) story about the placement of the Dutch Antilles House in Madurodam.
Last edited by Happy Hotelier on October 13, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Today Yesterday the CDA party conference said yes (68% for and 32% against) to a coalition forged between two political parties CDA (Christian Democrats) and VVD (Liberal Party) to form a minority government that will be “tolerated” by Geert Wilders’ PVV (Ban the criminals Party?).
On your Left Mark Rutten and on your right Maxime Verhagen. Both nicely coiffured with Geert’s hairdo. I believe this is one of the best political photoshops I’ve seen in ages. I found it at FB
Our regular readers will know that The Hague is the center of Dutch Government. So from time to time we will feature some of the Dutch political idiosyncrasies. I predicted already that Rutte needs his life vest to keep this government afloat. Today it is still uncertain that there will be a government, because the 3 parties have 76 of the 150 seats in Parliament and 2 members of the CDA faction still hesitate whether they will condone the tolerating …. Sigh politics ain’t easy.
If you say “Hopje” or “Hopjes” in plural, a Dutchman will associate it with The Hague immediately. Foreigners may associate it with a typical Dutch candy.
As the Dutch words “Haags” or “Haagsch” and “Haagse” or “Haagsche” mean “something or someone from The Hague”, a Haagsch Hopje is a coffy candy from the Hague.
Wikipedia has an English Language and a Dutch language lemma on Hopje. Former links with The Hague Daily Photo Blog, a blog sadly discontinued by its author Lezard, but still worth while a visit. I took the second photo from it.
Hopje’s History is also Typically Haags
It is named after baron Hendrik Hop who used to live in The Hague. His doctor advised him not to drink coffee, but he craved coffee like many of us. According to some sources it happened entirely by accident as Hop left a mixture of coffee and sugar simmer too long on his stove so that a heavily caramelized substance was left in the cup. He asked baker Theodorus van Haaren, who lived on the ground floor, to create coffee lumps that he could dissolve in water as a coffee alike drink. After some experimenting, van Haaren created a sweet made of coffee, caramel, cream and butter.
Where else than in The Hague could a Baron cause the invention of a candy?
Noteworthy is the hopje became so popular as a candy that there were many brands, each claiming being the producer of the original hopje. Rademaker’s is one of the brands that still survive, but Haagsche Hopjes are being made in Breda nowadays.
The Hague used to have a Museum dedicated to its Hopje, but that has been closed since 1998.
The third Tuesday of September is Prince’s Day in the Netherlands. It signals the start of the Dutch parliamentary year and is one of the most important days in the Dutch royal calendar.
Schools in The Hague close so the children can watch the procession as the Queen rides a golden horse-drawn carriage from the Noordeinde Palace to the Hall of Knights in the Binnenhof, the seat of the Dutch parliament in The Hague.
As Head of State, the Queen delivers the “Speech from the Throne” before a joint meeting of both chambers of parliament, members of the cabinet, the Council of State and some other invited guests. The Queens’ Speech outlines the government’s plans for the coming year. The Finance Minister presents his symbolic briefcase, containing both the Budget Memorandum and the National Budget to the President of the House of Representatives later in the day.
The Dutch Royal Armed Forces line the road as the procession returns to the Noordeinde Palace. The Royal Family appears on the palace balcony to address the huge crowd waiting for them.
The Prince’s Day celebrations date back to the 18th century when a holiday was declared to mark Prince Willem V’s birthday.
In present times, the occasion has taken a more pragmatic significance and is not a national holiday. The scenes of royal traditions in The Hague however are not lost on an adoring public that lines the city’s streets to witness the pomp and glory of the occasion.
Amsterdam isn’t the only city with canals. Find out more about the rich and fascinating history of The Hague during the Ooievaart Canal Tour.
Canal Tours are not just limited to Amsterdam. Since 2003 the Ooievaart Canal Tour has offered a unique glimpse into the 400+ years of hidden history along the canals of The Hague. It reveals little gems such as the home of Dutch painter Jan Steen, the location of the smallest church in The Hague, the residence of author and native son Louis Couperus, famous Dutch dancer turned WWI spy Mata Hari’s residence, and the beautiful holiday mansions for Dutch/Indonesian merchants on the Mauritskade. The Ooievaart Tour also provides a wealth of information on the former uses of the canals, their original role in the security of the city, the trade routes and the goods The Hague exported, and interesting landmarks for the city that flourished near the water’s edge.
The tour guide is very knowledgeable and the tour is conducted in Dutch; however, you can request a guidebook in the language of your choice when you arrive at the boat. The English guidebook was filled with interesting information and offered a map to all 21 points of interest. The tour is an hour and a half and was a great way to introduce the city to new visitors and residents alike.
Of note: The boats are uncovered, but with good reason – during its development The Hague did not create bridges over the canals, but rather built roads directly across the water. This makes some of the tour more interactive – be prepared to duck quite a bit!
Highlights from the tour can be found on Flickr. For more information on the Ooievaart Canal Tours, please visit their website: www.ooievaart.nl
The coat of arms of the City The Hague contains a stork, for ages already.
Two weeks ago, for the first time, I met several participants of Opûh Koffie (Open Coffee), an unstructured group of The Hague loving Hagenaars and Hagenezen (i.e. citizens of the Hague …. the difference of the two terms will be explained in due course) who come together at Aan de Overkant (Opposite or At The Other Side in English) each Wednesday morning at 9.00 hr AM, Just to drink a coffee with each other, to chat and sometimes to make photos or discuss photography. Today I’m hoping to attend my second Opûh Koffie.
After that Opûh Koffie one of the participants, Stork Frans, gave us a sneak preview of his “The Hague Stork Walk”. A wander route with a map and descriptions that shows you various storks on and around buildings in The Hague. Frans has put it together to insert in a photo book he is producing from his collection of over 800 photos of storks. He hopes to publish this book in October 2010.
While we were wandering around I’ve shot a couple of stork photos. I will share some with you here. The first is the stork on top of the Big Church which I didn’t know was there until Stork Frans pointed me to it at the start of his Stork Walk.
Absolutely The Hague! 