Today we were off to Scheveningen!! Ali’s Dad was born here so she wanted to visit and see where he grew up. She always had it in her mind that it was a little fishing village, but it was totally different than expected!
Auke got up early to go to Gerbert who owns a big cow farm to watch how they feed the 1200 cows. He recently had new cow sheds build and so now the feeding time and the process was a lot faster. It took about an hour to feed all the cows.
When it was time to go, the girls said they didn’t want to as they were having fun playing with Ollie and Gena. As Berend and Ida were staying home anyway, they offered to look after them while we went. So Auke, Ali and Titus hopped in the car and took off for Scheveningen.
The drive there took just over an hour. Our first stop was to see the house that Ali’s Dad was born/grew up in. We eventually found where we needed to go and parked one street away as there were no parks anywhere nearby. Even this park had to be paid for so we had to rush.
The street is right near the sea! You can even hear seagulls from there. We walked to the house and made sure to take photos!
Once back in the car, we drove to a nearby parking garage to park and then walked to the waterfront.
Scheveningen is not anything like a fishing village - it is a city! It’s busy, but it’s also absolutely beautiful. It reminded us of the Gold Coast with the relaxed holiday feel. Along the waterfront there were lots of restaurants to eat at and a few shops.
There was also many things for kids to do like trampoline worlds, and merry go-rounds on the waterfront too.
The first things that caught our eye (apart from the sea of course), was the big Ferris wheel. It’s not quite the height of the London Eye, but it’s still very impressive to look at. Next to this they had a high tower that you could bungy jump off, or zip line off.
Our first thing to do was have lunch. When Auke was a kid, he always used to go to a Pancake Restaurant on the waterfront so we walked there and ordered some pancakes. Ali also ordered a Pina Colada which was made from real fruit so it tasted amazing!
No sooner had our food arrived, we realised that Titus had a dirty nappy and it had leaked everywhere. In our rush to get to Scheveningen we had forgotten to pack a spare outfit so Ali had to quickly run to find some clothes for him. She managed to find a Hema, which usually has good choice, but this particular store had hardly anything. She finally found some clothes that would fit him, and then walked back to Auke and Titus.
By the time Ali had found a shop, bought new clothes, walked back and cleaned Titus all up, it had been about 25 minutes so Ali’s pancake was completely cold. Thankfully they reheated it for her.
When lunch was finished, we walked over to the Ferris wheel, only to find that included in your ride was appeltaart and coffee or tea. We had just had a massive pancake!
We climbed inside our capsule, and started going around. This Ferris wheel was a lot quicker than the London Eye. We had booked a 15 minute time slot and I think we went around 5 or 6 times.
The views of the beach were very pretty! Also, the appeltaart was delicious but sadly we were so full we couldn’t finish it.
Once we were off the Ferris wheel, Ali asked Auke if he wanted to go zip lining. He didn’t want to, but he said Ali could go. As it was something she always wanted to do, she jumped at the opportunity.
She got into her harness, climbed to the top of the bungee tower, and then when it was her turn, she was attached to the line, and after 3, 2, 1... she jumped!
She went flying down the zip line right above the sea. It was such a great experience!
The last thing we had time for was to take a quick walk along the beach. The beach was stunning. Unfortunately, the water was absolutely freezing, but no one seemed to mind and there were many people swimming or surfing!
We walked quickly back to the car, got in and drove to the centre of Den Haag. The streets there are nearly impossible to navigate. They’re all very narrow and to get anywhere you’ve got to go left, right, left, right, with barely any warning! On top of that, you have to look out for bikes, buses, pedestrians, the tram, and other cars!
We managed to safely get into the city but there were no marks. Auke pulled over into a drop off/pick up carpark and Ali ran out to see the statue she has waited a long time to see - Koning Willem II.
She asked someone to take a photo of her with it, quickly took some photos of the flags she saw, and then ran back to the car.
We drove home and got the kids from Berend and Ida, and then rushed to get them to bed. We didn’t have long, because tonight we were going to meet some of Ali’s relatives in Apeldoorn!
The plan was to bring them a small gift. As we had never met them before, we didn’t know what they liked so we thought the safest option was to bring flowers. However, every single supermarket was closed! Apparently they all close super early in the Netherlands. We ended up having to drive an extra 25 minutes or so to find a place that was still open to buy flowers and we ended up arriving late!
We arrived at a nice apartment building, and Cor (who is Ali’s Mum’s cousin) waved to us from above. We were then met by his son in law Gerard and he showed us up into the apartment.
When we walked in, everyone was warm and friendly. Even though we had never met them before, it felt like we had known them for forever!
It was a lovely evening, we chatted and looked at old photos of family. It was so nice to see some photos of Ali’s Opa and Oma, and also some photos of Great Opa and Oma.
We were only planning on staying for a little while as it was already 8.30pm by the time we arrived, but it was so nice we ended up staying for hours!
We were very sad to say goodbye but it was late so we had to head home. Ali’s Mum had wanted some photos so we made sure to take photos, and then it was time to go!
We drove home and went straight to bed!
This featured blog entry was written by de Boer from the blog De Boer Family Travels.
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