Introduction
For our son’s first foreign holiday, in May half-term we went to the seaside town of Scheveningen in the Netherlands. It’s part of the Hague, known for its war crime courts, although that wasn’t the main attraction.
We arrived by train, which should be simple, but due to various engineering work, took a total of five trains and a rather long time.
Once there we stayed in a seafront apartment which was nice but came with a highly unreliable digital key, so that I had to call them in a panic when we arrived (at which point they directed me to the old-fashioned key safe with a working normal key).
Overall not the best start to the holiday, but after that everything went smoothly. In the Netherlands, absolutely everyone speaks English, which is a little embarrassing but extremely helpful.
Sunday
We went to the beach in the morning and, in the afternoon, met up with a couple R knows who live in The Hague. With them we took a short walk along the pier and the beach.
There are many bars and restaurants along the top of the beach, which are apparently all temporary - everything disappears in winter and it’s just sand again. Quite impressive.
Monday
We visited Madurodam, a nearby tourist attraction (ten minutes on the tram) which I had been to before when I was 6! It is a miniature city with very many model buildings - like the model villages that are common in England, but about fifty times bigger and much more impressive. There are also playgrounds and other attractions. We all enjoyed it. According to their intro film it is ‘the world’s most cheerful war memorial’ because it is actually named in memory of a local war hero.
I also took a few photos near our apartment.
Tuesday
We walked out along the boulevard (which was halfway through being very extensively rebuilt - we were comparing the amount of effort/money being spent on it against what happens at British seaside towns), so as to play on a different bit of beach. I didn’t mention yet, but Scheveningen beach is extremely windy, and I say that as somebody who holidayed on North Sea beaches in Yorkshire as a child.
In the evening we had a very pleasant dinner at the flat of the couple I mentioned above (they are very nice, and gave our son a Lego flower).
Wednesday
We went to Utrecht to see the Miffy museum, since we like Miffy. The museum is good (but definitely only suitable for young children). I don’t have any pictures though!
Thursday
The weather was a bit grey. I went for a morning walk with Adam to a nearby Cold War watchtower, which is now an automated weather station.
After that we took a tram ride and walk to see the harbour.
At my insistence we walked out to see the red harbour light. Everywhere was windy but this really reached a new level. They literally had a sign at the start of the path warning you to hold onto small children so they don’t blow away.
Friday
In the morning it was quite misty.
The weather cleared and we played on the beach for a while.
We also repeated the short walk to the watchtower, because R had missed out last time and the weather was better.
In the afternoon we rode on the Ferris wheel at the end of the pier. It probably depends how busy they are, but we got to go round quite a few times.
Our son announced that he wanted to go on more trams, so we took an unnecessary tram ride to the centre and back a different way.
Here’s a final evening view from our apartment.
That’s all! Our train journey home was much faster (albeit still not as easy as it should be on a normal day when Eurostar actually makes it to Rotterdam). We enjoyed the holiday and the Netherlands is a very nice country to visit.
And I almost forgot to even mention the food hall five minutes walk from our flat, which was great, like the one on our earlier Amsterdam trip.