The North Sea

After I got done with the Peace Palace, I decided to go see the North Sea.  Because it was pretty close and sounded pretty nifty.  It was big and cold and gray and cold and misty and cold and pretty nifty.  For the record, the last time I was at the beach was when I went to Virginia Beach with Grace and Jael a few years ago over Easter weekend.  As I recall, that trip was also quite, quite cold.
I walked out along the beach for quite a ways, just for fun and to see what things are like out there, starting out from the lower left little blue bubble and going along to the upper right little blue bubble.  Since it was January, it wasn't too busy, although there were a few people and a few animals out.  There were some couples out walking.




And lots of dogs.  While I was there, someone came with her two gorgeous Red Setters who really seemed to enjoy running free on the beach.  There was a really huge dog there early, apparently.  Just look at the size of these paw prints!

And people also were out riding horses on the beach as well.  Actually, there seem to be an inordinate number of horses in Dutch cities.  In fact, while I was waiting for the tram near the Peace Palace, in the middle of the city, someone rode her horse down the street right in front of me.  While I was riding the tram on the way to the Peace Palace, the tram stopped to allow a carriage pulled by four horses and accompanied by a bunch of mounted attendants to go by.

The beach is definitely set up like any beach town.  It looks a lot like a slightly less tacky Virginia Beach, although that could be a function of the fact that it is definitely the off season.

The beach front architecture is pretty spiffy, though.  If you notice the flags, you will see just how windy it was while I was there.

The beach is made of lots and lots of sea shells.  I thought of picking some up to bring back for Huldah to make earrings out of but I don't know if they would work very well.  But a lot of them were really pretty.  I imagine that it would make walking barefoot on the beach quite unpleasant.

There were a lot of larger shells as well.  I didn't know what a lot of them were but, while I was walking through the pier, they had a display of different shells and things and they identified them.  This is the American or Atlantic Jackknife or Razor Clam.  It is called that because it is very sharp and because it looks like the handle of an old fashioned razor.  It is an invasive species and apparently has had a fairly detrimental affect on the local fauna.  I think it's kind of pretty, though.  

This is the underside and top side of what I am fairly certain is a Common Swimming Crab of the family Portunoidea.  It  is a pretty little shell.  However, if you click here you can see a video of one of these little crabs swimming and it looks way to buggy and spidery for me to be really comfortable with the idea of being in the water with them.

There were neither red "swimming forbidden" nor yellow "swimming dangerous" flags out, but I wasn't very tempted.  

I did think, briefly, about taking my shoe off and sticking my toe in the North Sea, just because, but it was really, really cold.  And wet.  I decided that it sounded terrible after all.  Then I thought about running out and sticking a finger in the North Sea, just to say I had, but, as previously noted, it was really, really cold.  Also, the tide was coming in pretty enthusiastically so I was pretty sure that I wouldn't make it unscathed.

So instead, I just put my foot really, really close to the water, narrowly avoided the water, and still got pretty close to the North Sea.  I did get a little North Sea on the hem of my pants, though.

Then I walked out to the big pier.  There are a couple of restaurants in there, a casino, and loads and loads of little shops and things, most of which were closed, because of it being January.  You can see the pier pretty clearly in the map that is towards the top of this post.

The pier is really long.  I walked the whole length of it, which was kind of boring, actually.  Some of the little shops were open and had lots of touristy stuff.  Almost all of the stuff said "Holland" instead of "The Netherlands".  I suppose that this fits on things better, being shorter, but I think that it doesn't show a lot of national pride.  There were loads of wooden shoes and Delft colored kitchen magnets and loads and loads of really, really inappropriate post cards.

If you notice the dark black lines on the lower half of the pylons that support the pier, you can see just how high the tide gets when it comes in.  It comes up a long, long way.  In the picture below, you can see a guy standing on the edge of the beach, which will give you an idea as to the scale of the pier.

With the tide coming in, you could see lots of rip-tides.  It was pretty impressive.  This is a video of the tide--toward the back, you can see a big rip tide thing where the waves kind of curve around and smack each other.

For lunch, I ate a restaurant called "De Mollige Haan"or "The Chubby Chicken".  It was right on the edge of the Boardwalk so I could watch the tide come in while I had lunch.  It was really pleasant.  There weren't that many folks there but there were pillars throughout the restaurant with gas fires in them so that you could be warm and get the feeling of sitting beside a fireplace.  On the chairs that were around the tables outside, they had fuzzy red fleece blankets so that you could cuddle up while you drank your coffee.  I had the "Mollige Haan" sandwich.  It was lettuce, chicken, cheese, peaches, and mayonnaise on a roll and it was pretty much impossible to eat neatly.  I am still not sure if you were supposed to eat it with your hands or with a fork but the roll was really hard (I don't think it was very fresh) and that made it even more difficult.  The mayo wasn't like American mayo--it had a much lighter taste (not as in light but as in fluffier or less something).  It was also sweeter--kind of like it was mayonnaise mixed with whipped yogurt or something.  It was actually pretty tasty.  But it made for a fun beach trip lunch.