clog blog: Hemelvaartsdag Long Weekend

Thursday was a public holiday in the Netherlands for Hemelvaarts Dag or Ascension Day and Justin had Friday off work too so we had a nice long weekend. And the weather was nice for four days in a row! Sunshine with a bit of wind, was great! But Monday it was back to clouds and rain.

Thursday we headed to The Hague for exploring! First up was a walk through the park to see the deer and onto a more wooded area. The deer are in a large closed off area so people can’t get to them but you can still get pretty close. They are very relaxed and don’t get stressed if people come up close-ish. There were some little ones, medium sized ones and of course on main Daddy looking one, lol. The wooded park area is quite wild. It was really nice to see people using the park to cycle in, walk their dog, play with their children, ride their horse etc. and it is really lovely at the moment being all green.

Next was a quick stroll through the city. The city is a lot older than Rotterdam, I keep having to remind myself that Rotterdam was bombed flat in WWII, but also has a young funky feel to it. We walked through the Binnenhof which is the parliamentary and government buildings which was originally a hunting lodge for counts in the 13^th century. We also passed other official looking buildings like the ministry of finance etc.

The Hague also has many museums such as the well-known Mauritshuis the collection of which includes works by old masters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer and is home to ‘girl with a pearl earring’ by Vermeer. I really want to go to this museum but it was a beautiful sunny day to be spent on the beach and not in museums! We have agreed to do the museum thing when winter is upon us and it is cold and yukky again.

The main aim for the day was to hit the beach! Scheveningen used to be a fishing village but then became a seaside resort. There are two long piers which stretch into the ocean, a fancy looking hotel called the Kurhaus, the old harbour and miles of sandy beach! We had lunch at the end of one pier and watched people bungy jumping from a crane type structure, not quite the same as Bloukrans!

After lunch we had a long walk on the beach between the two piers; it was so nice to feel sand between the toes again and walk in the lapping water. Just like Cape Town, there were more people on the beach than in the water! lol. I am really amazed at how people sun bathe here, clothes off, costume on and in the sun! No hat, no sunglasses. I wonder if they use any sunblock. It is only the beginning of summer but just about everyone on the beach had an even all over tan already. The first sign of sun and they are out there, it’s amazing. We stayed covered up with hats on, the power of the sun is deceptive in the wind, but still managed to change colour a bit. Yay! I now have a stripe tan =)

Scheveningen is one of the beaches closest to us and easy to get to using public transport so we will probably go there when we are looking for a beach fix. Hoek van Holland is the other close-ish one that we still want to check out which is also relatively easy to get to. I also want to go to Hellevoetsluis sometime but it is more of a mission by train.

I really liked The Hague and we will be back for more exploring!

On Friday afternoon we had a picnic in a park called Kralingse Bos with a guy from Justin’s office, Joppe, and his wife, Claire. Two of their friends also joined us. We have a park close to where we live called The Park, very original, but Kralingse Bos is much bigger ad has a lake/dam in the middle that people sail on etc. It was another lazy afternoon vegging in the sun but it was great. A good opportunity to work on our tans! Bron also made her first milk tart ever for the picnic and it went down well =)

Saturday morning Justin finished putting together the new Ikea cabinet that he had started earlier in the week, yay! It is all finished =) We packed another picnic with the aim of cycling to Schiedam to explore a bit and have a munch there. But Bron was too nervous on her bike after her fall and the weight in the basket at the front of bike wasn’t helping so we didn’t make it very far and landed up picnicking on a spot of grass next to the canal instead. Epic fail. We did however cycle into the city after dropping off the picnic goodies and Bron is feeling a lot more confident on her bike since cycling around with Justin a bit.

We watched the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides, on Saturday night. I was expecting it to be poor considering it’s the fourth in the series but was pleasantly surprised. We really enjoyed the movie and definitely recommend it. Somehow they always manage to come up with something new and fresh while still keeping to the original Pirates plot i.e. Jack chasing a girl and The Black Pearl. What was different about Saturday’s movie was that we cycled there! I can safely say that I have never cycled to a movie before! Even when Justin lived 100m from Cavendish Square we used to drive there because it wasn’t safe to walk back at night after the movie, crazy.

Sunday saw Bron cycling to church and then organising the new bookshelf and cabinet while Justin playing cricket. They lost horribly but Justin was told that he should be playing for the second team =) The game was reduced to 30 overs due to rain delaying play. The opposing team, Rood and Wit, made 262/8. Justin’s figures were 42/2 after 7 overs but he didn’t make any catches this time. Justin’s team, VOC, were all out for 79 and Justin made a dismal 9 (his words!). VOC also lost the game they played on Thursday so hoping there will be an improvement soon! Come on guys!

And then it was the end of our four day weekend =( But this weekend is another long weekend =) Sunday is Pentecost and Monday is Tweede Pentecost, very strange but we are not complaining! No plans for the weekend yet except for dinner on Friday night since it is somebody’s graduation day… Some exploring probably and a cricket game, of course.

Hope you are well and having a good week!