Well, the weather was as per usual... Wind and rain...
Today was our last full day in Noordwijk aan Zee and indeed in the Netherlands so we needed to do some cleaning, washing, planning for our trip to Hamburg and chilling. Not terribly exciting (again)...
But we did brave the strong wind outside for short stroll. Anneke recommended that we visit the Grand Hotel which is on the dunes at the south end of town.
So with some blue sky we set off - walking directly into the strong wind (today is average 20-30km/per hour with gusts above that of course). It was a good exercise but Di kept a firm hold on Hans as there were times we were both blown backward and progress was a bit slow.
We made it to the Grand Hotel called Huis ter Duin (house of the dune). A selfie out in the back terrace "protected" by a glass wall. Yep - Di's hair was again windswept and interesting.
The Grand Hotel is, yes, grand...5 stars and quite posh.
The hotel has its own beach access from the back terrace but no guests were taking up the option today...just a couple of kite boarders further up the beach.
We poked our noses in various sections of the hotel and did notice a few guests inside at the warm indoor pool instead, which looked nice.
Bored with the posh hotel (not really our style) we headed out the front door and...stopped. It's hard to tell from this picture but horizontal rain had started. We have experienced this at home in Manly, so we knew what to do - we turned around and went back inside until it stopped.
The rain soon stopped but it was still windy and unpleasant. The grass behind Hans tells the story... Hold on to...
A quick stroll home (downwind was much easier).
Hans has been pleased to see a "pissoir" here and had to include a photo. This one has 8 urinals but none for short guys, the ones we could see appear to be suited to men at least 180cm tall. Nothing for women or children - anywhere! Di has been paying attention and there is nothing at the beach.
Hmmm - maybe a letter to a bureaucrat is required? Not that it worked when Di wrote to Michael Bloomberg in New York City about the lack of public toilets there (and the result that too many corners and stairs smell like they do). Di is still waiting for a response on that one...
We kept our heads down and headed home. Wow - Good timing. We had been home about 15 minutes when rain and small hail started beating down.
More chilling and Di made some dishes from leftovers for lunch. Pasta and cheese sauce for her and pyttipanna (fried potato, onion and bacon) for Hans.
Full of comfort food we did some washing and chilled some more. Then more rain and hail...
We don't have to worry too much about the cleaning now as that will be "outsourced" to Anneke's cleaner, who can come anytime in the next couple of months to do the cleaning as nobody would be here for quite a while.
We will finish off our stay in Noordwijk aan Zee with a couple of night pics. This is Vomar, the supermarket.
And this is our street, Binnenweg, were we stay in the 4th townhouse to the right, were the lights are on.
More left over bits and pieces for dinner, pasta with chicken from last night which worked really well together.
Washing and cleaning a bit more before we sat down to watch Bourne Supremacy on DVD once again. Lazy evening as the rain came down good, with hail and thunder and lighting at times. Good night from the Netherlands.
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