Scheveningen on the North Sea

Scheveningen is a resort area about 15 minutes by tram from Den Haag Centraal. There are a number of restaurants and a small shopping area in addition to the beach. The beach itself is quite large and is home to the Scheveningen Sand Sculpture Competition.

All of the museums are closed on Mondays in The Hague. It was the perfect excuse for a beach walk. Luckily for us, the weather was glorious! And truth be known, I was curious to see the North Sea. I worked for a company that did quite a bit of oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, and I had heard about the extreme waves and cold. Granted, Roxi and I were firmly on shore, but it was still cool to go and look out and wonder. The water was VERY cold, by the way. We went to the beach again on our last day, and there was a school group making sandcastles. All the kids were wearing their down parkas (and getting their shoes wet, I might add)! That first day, however, we actually took our coats off so we could soak up the sunshine.

There is a lot of public art near the beach. This was just up a small hill nearby.

Those long bivalves were so fragile. We took a few home with us and wrapped them up in a bunch of tissue. We also found some tiny sea biscuits and some large beach glass (hurray!)

I thought we’d be alone on the beach, but there was a nice little crowd. I couldn’t believe women were walking out there in their heeled boots.

We also shared the beach with a bunch of deliriously happy dogs. They were all off leash and very well behaved.

Lucky them.

This is the Kurhaus hotel, which was built in the late 1800s. Mr. DJ stayed here a lot late last year. Unfortunately he never got to enjoy the place since he was always up early and back late. He told us that there is a stunning restaurant under that dome. Can you believe we forgot to look inside? That’s how much we loved being out on the beach. Oh well, there is always next time.

The nearby pier.

And one should never pass up the chance for a little gelato.

I had pistache and kokosnoot (pistachio and coconut). Roxi had chocolade.