Bloemendaal

Somehow, between my sister's visit and our Easter trip to Portugal, I managed to squeeze in a day at the beach with Leigh, a new friend from the Amsterdam girls' Meetup group I joined. On a particularly warm day (24℃... yes I know, how things have changed!) I hopped on a bus to Leigh's place in Bad Hoevedorp, a town near Haarlem and Sloten. It looks far on the map, but turned out to be just 20 minutes by bus from Museumplein.

At Leigh's place, I saw how much space you can get living outside of the city (it's pretty, but I'm happy where I am!) and met her adorable (and huge!) pets.

Then we took her car for a 30-minute drive (where we almost ran out of gas!) to Zaandvoort a.k.a. The Beach, where apparently everyone and his mother goes on a sunny weekend. At the Anne Frank House, I even saw pictures of Anne Frank and her family in their beachwear at Zaandvoort back in the 1930s!

We opted to go to Bloemendaal, the "posher" stretch of beach beside Zaandvoort, passing huge mansions on the way. Apparently the only reason it's posher is because of all these chillax-chic beach bars on the dunes...

... which were a nice enough place to enjoy lunch and a girly gabfest. I still have to get used to sandwiches and salads as beach food, though.

So, this is the beach. It fulfills the two basic requirements: sand and sea. It gets positively scorching up on the dunes, but closer to the shoreline, the sea breeze kicks in and cools you right off. Speaking of cooling off: don't even think of going into the water, at least not in April... unless you want to die of hypothermia. No matter how warm it is on land, that North Sea means business. Toto, we're not in the South China Sea anymore.

With swimming out of the picture, it was nice to just tan on the sand and enjoy a chat with a new friend. Leigh is from South Africa, and it was unbelievable how many commonalities our countries share: from stunning natural beauty to visa woes to everyday tales of crime and corruption that the Dutch we've met simply find impossible to comprehend.

Q: Mahangin ba sa labas? A: Sa tingin mo?

If I'd come straight here from the Philippines without being exposed to the sadness that is Sentosa, I would have scoffed at this beach. But the stretch of sand is wide and clean, and it's near enough to get to in a pinch. I definitely wouldn't mind doing again, especially with lots of sunshine and good friends!