It's our last full day here on the North Sea coast. This morning after breakfast on the balcony, we got bikes again from our apartment host, Medhi. He was in fine spirits because of the unseasonably good weather on this, his birthday. So we pedaled through the dunes to the far end of the beach and walked farther along the strand and came home when we got hungry for brunch (every meal here is a brunch of sorts). Since then we've been lazing about. We had planned to bike again the 3/4 hour to Haarlem, but instead will laze about some more and hit the beach in a bit. Photos to follow...
[update...] It occurred to me a didn't write much about our choice digs on the Holland North Sea coast. I think i wrote before how Zandvoort essentially functions as both the Canon Beach for Amsterdam, but also the sunny weeklong holiday destination for Germans. This place is all about tourists.
From home, i was able to find this studio apartment you see on the street corner with the Dutch flag. We have the second floor, front facing flat with the big balcony.
Our hosts were quite delightful empty nesters. We didn't have much time to prat, as we were all entertaining (or being entertained) throughout the week. Mehdi, a native of Morroco, was quite generous to put up with our beginning Dutch (he's also fluent in German, English, French and Arabic - and i'm sure more). Virginie grew up, i believe, with her sister Karin in Morocco. Karin, who has been an
artist in California since 1980 happened to be visiting this week as well. It turned out that it was Mehdi's birthday. We were able to present him with an OSU Beaver T-shirt, a leftover from Hans's
Koninginnedag collection.
Our apartment's balcony was huge and could easily and comfortably accommodate a half dozen. It was great for entertaining, and we spent much of the week there, observing the action down below.
Michael and Michelle, our friends from Portland (whom regular blog readers will also know from such places as Fahrenbach and Zandvoort) tracked us down in Bruges.
Manuel is a fellow countryman of Hans's. A lifelong resident of Bruges, he gave us a fantastic walking tour by sunset...
It's another late night, but here's a few random pictures of Flemish life and culture, just so you'll know we did mere than drink beer...
Pretty picture. Self-explanatory.
This chapel houses the holy relic of Jesus's blood. (really.)
This imposing hall is the Bruges theatre house. We didn't see any plays, but behind the theatre was one of the pubs we hit.
Also behind the theatre is an outdoor public urinal. It's that silver thing that looks like modern art.
In the courtyard behind the Church of Our Lady are modern sculptures depicting the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
This is our own Flemish home away from home. The landlord Dr. Dewilde, a GP physician, bought and restored this house around the turn of the millenium. Located just off of Queen Astrid Park, it's wonderfully decorated in old world chíc with the cutest little back patio.
Departing Holland (for the time being). Here we pass by Haarlem, where we previously bike to from Zandvoort.
Approaching the Belgian border...
We had to transfer in Antwerp anyway, so we took a midday break from the train ride to Bruges in order to visit one of our favorite pubs.
