Trip to the Seaside
Posted by stephen on Saturday, 15th September, 2007 @ 11:57
Making use of having a car, Richard and I decided we'd pay a little visit to the seaside on Monday, having ruled out driving to Germany because another 8 hours or so of driving didn't seem particularly appealing.
We'd originally planned (on Sunday) to hire bikes and go up to Katwijk, which is about 5 miles west of Leiden. Zoe recommended against it and mentioned Noordwijk, a little further up the coast, was much nicer. So we set off in the wrong direction for half an hour and explored the Dutch countryside before heading back into Leiden and onto the correct road.
At that point I was rather glad we had the car because a rather intense sea breeze was coming inland, and the people on the cycle path running parallel to the road looked like they were struggling somewhat, and as they ride bikes nearly every day of their lives I'd have stood no chance!
It didn't take long to follow the signs for Noorwijk aan Zee and soon enough the car was parked and we were stepping out onto the beach. Or, more accurately, the beach was coming up to meet us as the wind blew large amounts of sand into our faces.
We wondered around a little, Richard taking lots of photos of signs, bins, etc as he is want to do. Meanwhile I admired with great awe the many kitesurfers being thrown dramatically across the sea before us. How they maintained any kind of control was a complete mystery. It looked like an amazing experience, but one that's tear me apart quite quickly!
Wandering up from the beach again and into the town, it had a very familiar feel. A strange mix of fairly ugly concrete hotel apartments that you find at any holiday-in-the-sun type resort mixed in with something not far off a sleepy English coastal village or small town. Lots of interestingly named holiday homes, a small parade of shops and restaurants and the like. It was all very quiet and closed, despite summer (if you could call it that) only recently coming to an end.
Once we'd returned to our temporary home in Leiden I decided to have a little look on Google Earth and see where we'd been. And it stuck me just how close to being parallel with Southwold it is. A place where I spent many a weekend and summer holiday when I was growing up.
And on reviewing a few of the pictures I took, it struck me how in some of them I could quite easily have been standing near the seafront on the Suffolk coast, 120 miles across the North Sea.
Oh, and one last thing... Notice the road network in the Netherland in the picture above, and then compare it to that of East Anglia.
