Day 14 ~ A Sand Fort in Zandvoort

Well, we never did build a sand fort in Zandvoort. But we sure did go to the beach.

Zandvoort is a highly resorty town due west of Amsterdam, 30 minutes from the city to the sea. The town itself is charmless, as we were warned by a chatty Dutch woman on the train. It’s all high rise hotels, concrete, steel and glass. But we had a good time.

On the train ride there, we saw the first substantial forest we’d seen in our time in the lowlands. The train rolled by it for several minutes, so it’s a pretty big stretch. They are tall, well-established trees, and it would be neat to know more about them.

We were totally baffled when we arrived at the beach. There were hundreds of little windbreak/sun shelter half-tent things. It was a sea of them. And then there were chaise lounges, maybe thousands of them. Had we stumbled on some kind of private event? Were we allowed on this beach? Were these things we could rent, and if so, who did we pay, and how? As the day went on, it turns out that these comforts were completely free, available to everyone and anyone, first-come first-served. There were also really neat wheelchair contraptions with big sand wheels, for anyone to use that needs one. Didn’t the Dutch know they could be making money off this? What wonderland is this where our common humanity leads people to make you comfortable for free? We still don’t have our heads wrapped around it.

Also of note: The beach stretched for mile after mile of perfect, soft sand. The sand was as clean as we’d seen at Oostende in Belgium, just silky and debris-free. And the people! There were thousands of people. All of those miles of beach were swarming with people. Not so many as to make it uncomfortable, although it was a Thursday, so the weekends I’m sure turn into madness. We loved thinking of the thousands of Nederlanders enjoying a rare sunny day at the beach.

We didn’t stay long, expecting to come back in the afternoon. There were dozens of restaurants lining the beach with big outdoor patios facing the beach. We spent a lovely lunch at one. Stef’s expectations of high prices and low quality were dashed – high prices yes, but the food was really wonderful. And the view was spectacular.

We were excited to rent bikes (our first time in the Netherlands!) and ride up to a national park. It was a neat route with sand dunes and rolling turf.

As a quick aside: Yes, the photo above highlights the sand and grass, but we took it to capture all of the offshore wind turbines. If you look close at the horizon, there are dozens of them (50?), each shorter than a blade of grass from this perspective! Think about this when anyone says offshore wind will ruin the views.

This was much easier than the city biking we’d considered but decided was too complex for us. We saw some real live trees for the second time, some scrappy pines that seem to be getting it done where no other trees were.

Our destination was a lake in Kennemerland National Park. When we got there, the waterfowl included actual swans:

We headed back for some beach time and a soak in the actual ocean.

The Atlantic water was a great temperature, cool enough to cool you down, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable. Do you hear that, Oregon beaches? It’s been a long time since we swam in the ocean. Waves were low, and sandbars off the beach broke the waves even more. It was thoroughly tranquil to float in the gentle waves. We loved our time at the beach.

And now we’ve been to the Atlantic ocean twice on this trip, each visit as awesome the last. This trip keeps on giving.