Sun and sea

I saw the sea today. The North Sea. It was blue on the horizon, turning to grey at the coastline where it deposited a froth of grey-green scum. The place we went to is called Zandvoort. It's the nearest beach to Amsterdam - only 22 miles away. Twenty-two miles and it took us exactly TWO HOURS to get there by car. I'm laughing out loud as I write this, realising that it means we averaged 11 miles an hour! Bud, my chauffeur, doesn't find it funny. He's asked me to go and make a cup of tea for us. Hold on...

Tea's brewing. Slow moving traffic is a feature of Dutch life. Traffic jams seem to be our speciality. We've actually abandoned a trip to the coast in the past because there were so many roadworks and diversions, we could no longer work out how to get there.

Tea's ready. Anyway, today we made it. Walked along the promenade on top of the sand dunes, enjoying what I call the 'hill experience' - looking down at the sea.

(Despite Holland being below sea-level, you do actually look down at the sea when you're at the coast - either from the top of a sand dune or the top of a dike; it's the land behind you that's lower. I remember being disappointed the first time I went to the coast here. I'd expected to climb up the dike and see the water lapping the top of it on the other side! Don't suppose even the Dutch would be able to build a construction strong enough to hold back the ocean like that!)

A quick beach walk and then we chose a beach cafe, sheltering from the wind behind the white fence topped with perspex 'windows' that face out to sea. It was lovely sat there in the sun, listening to the sound of the waves, that soothing sound of the sea that evokes happy, carefree, holiday feelings. Lovely. Too short. But lovely just to be there for a couple of hours again.