Beach Bums, Holland

Part of my “wanting to explore more than just Amsterdam” had to involve a trip to the beach.

Blue skies.

White sand.

Gale force winds.

Furious frothing sea.

Y’know, the usual.

Scheveningen turned out to be just what we needed and blew the cobwebs away.

(Please excuse the sock situation. I didn’t pack any others and style goes out of the window when faced with potential damp, sandy shoe blisters! Plus, cosy.)

It’s easy to see why so many painters were inspired by The Netherlands.

The light is utterly different to anywhere I’ve been.

Even on stormy days it has a cool brightness to it, like being inside a giant softbox.

A very restorative experience, especially combined with salty air, crashing waves and cackling seagulls.

Talking of crashing waves…

Blue coat // White jeans // Sunglasses (half price)

 Shirt // Jumper // Trainers

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We walked out as far as we could.

Kissed under the lighthouse.

And raced each other back to the beach, pausing, clutching each other as we avoided the waves and clouds of spray!

Just in from the beach, in the marina, you’ll find Catch.

A seafood restaurant, set up by Hollands biggest seafood supplier (so you know they keep the best stuff for themselves!)

With wind battered faces, a wild mop of hair and two grins that just wouldn’t budge, we sat down to lunch.

A great mountain of shellfish!

Washed down with wine, and followed by mints with the Queen’s face on them.

Warmed up, full to the gills and very jolly, we set off again.

Heading further in land to Laren for  poffertjes.

Poffertjes are tiny little fat pancakes.

Cooked in a special pan, the chef pours batter into little cast iron pools.

In this case, a lot of pools! Though many people make them at home on a much smaller pan.

They begin to brown and firm up on the bottom.

And they’re flipped, quickly and expertly, using forks.

By the time they reach the end, the pancakes are done.

They’re popped onto plates, topped with a slab of butter (in this case not real butter devastatingly) and snowed with sugar.

Between the two of us, we managed rather a few.

But can you blame us?

Just look at those pillowy soft, fluffy morsels of goodness.

Pro tip: Order the sugar on the side, and dunk them in yourself. Otherwise they can be a little too sweet.

Holland is one of the few places in the world where people genuinely love to speak English! So don’t feel shy about having a good ol’ chat with the chaps.

It really is one of the loveliest places I’ve ever travelled to.