Christmas Drinks Party – 12 December
What a way to kick off the festive season! Once again, we had a fabulous evening at the Australian Ambassador’s Residence in The Hague. From the warm welcome to the great company, the night was full of good cheer and jolly fun. The photos really do speak for themselves! A big thank-you to the embassy staff for helping make the evening such a success.
27 September Afternoon Tea at the Embassy Residence The Hague.
A chic afternoon dedicated to our honorary members, where everyone enjoyed a truly wonderful time.
30 August Summer BBQ / Garden Party
What a fabulous time we had in the beautiful garden in Wassenaar. Good food, great company, exciting raffle bags to win.
6 July Beach Brunch Scheveningen
10 May A guided tour through The Hague
A group of 15 were lucky to enjoy perfect weather for our guided walk in The Hague! Our knowledgeable guide — one of our own members — led us through the city’s history and geography, starting with coffee at Paviljoen Malieveld. From there, Wim amazed us with his wealth of information, punctuating the walk with fascinating facts about trees, bridges, and statues. We discovered hidden gems, like the house of the KLM founder and the birthplace of the Haags Hopje sweet. Palaces lined the Noordeinde, and Hotel des Indes brought back memories of a high tea many of us enjoyed with the club a few years ago. We wrapped up the day with a delicious Indonesian lunch at De Poentjak — the perfect ending to a wonderful outing!
25 April ANZAC Day
At the Commonwealth war graves section of the Westduin cemetery, the annual ANZAC day ceremony was held. We were welcomed by Canon Michael Roden, then H.E. Dr Greg French (Ambassador of Australia) and Ms Katherine Arditto (Second Secretary, Embassy of Australia) performed “Song for Grace”. The audience were addressed by H.E. Ms Susannah Gordon (Ambassador of New Zealand) then a Waiata (Pō Atarau Now is the Hour) followed by prayers led by Canon Michael Roden & a reading by H.E. Mr. Selçuk Ünal (Ambassador of the Republic of Türkiye). Among the wreaths laid, one of our members laid a wreath on behalf of the ANZC. There was a performance of “Going Home”, followed by an Ode of Remembrance read by Mr Murray Brown. After the ceremony we headed inside for morning tea which included ANZAC biscuits.
16 March, Museum ‘s Schip, Amsterdam
An outing to Museum ‘t Schip in Amsterdam. An amazing building built in the Amsterdam School Style in 1919, showing people lived in Amsterdam School style houses. Amsterdam School was a movement against mass industrialisation, reigniting thedesire for the handmade, the handcrafted and the unique. Afterwards we enjoyed a delightful dinner at Restaurant Freud.
1 February, Australia Day / Waitangi Day
Our Australia-Waitangi Day celebration on Saturday 1 February was a great success with old friends and new. Held at the Residence of the NZ Ambassador, we began with real Aussie pies, mash, peas and gravy followed by a great selection of Aussie and Kiwi desserts. There were pavs and lamingtons, ginger crunch and even a snickers cheesecake! Helen prepared an Aussie/Kiwi quiz to test us. It was great fun and quite a lot of us didn’t do too well… Everyone had a wonderful time.
11 January, Schiedam
What a wonderful start to the new year! A group of us visited the quaint town of Schiedam, famous for their jenever (gin), sold all over the world. We started at the museum’s windmill for a coffee and a climb, which gave a beautiful view over the town from the windmill balcony. Our English speaking guide gave an elaborate tour of the museum and told us much about the genever industry and its history.
One of the things we learned was that the export of jenever to Australia and New Zealand started relatively late, the jenever export began to flourish after the British had started to establish themselves in Aus and NZ in the second half of the 19th century. A fun fact is that labels of jenever bottles found in New Zealand show that a former pharmacy there sold jenever as a medicine, allegedly someone had been cured of their rheumatism after drinking jenever…
We had a lovely lunch together, after which the chocolate lovers among us visited a glorious chocolate shop to buy some exquisite chocolates to take home.