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Published: July 25th 2010
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Morning jog
Many mornings, we all went out. Lori ran and me and the kids rode our bikes. At this point in the loop, I took off ('cause going the kids' speed is no workout) and met them all back at the house. Once again, we decided to pick a town and just go. So, we picked Hellevoetsluis partly cuz it sounded weird and partly cuz it is on the coast just south of Den Haag. It was an overcast day and we weren't even sure if things would be open since mostly everything shuts down on Sundays. We got there and found the VVV (tourist info) and got a map and found our way to the harbour. There was a really cool swing bridge fully functioning and in "full swing" (so to speak) when we got there. It opened up to let about 8 boats through. Then one foolish small sailboat tried to sneak through as it was almost closed. They got spoken to harshly on the loudspeaker. We did not understand a word of it but you could tell he was in trouble!
We tried to get fish and chips for lunch (being right on the sea) but the closest thing we could find was a chip truck serving all sorts of dutch fried favourites as well as McCain fries (they even had a big banner on the side for McCain's). So we had two frikandel (deep fried skinless minced meat
Farm house
Typical farmhouse that I pass on my bike rides. sausage, not unlike fried haggis) and some fries (the Dutch get mayo or sate sauce on top of their fries but we got ketchup since Rachel sort of likes it. They'd not yet sold ketchup to anyone else thus had to open a new bottle for us). Then we wandered the beach and admired the sailboats moored to the side of the canal. There was also a really old lighthouse at the canal opening. Later we hit the only shops in town that were open and picked up a few things. Once we got home and realized there was no food in the house, we headed in to town on bikes to have dinner with the locals. We had Chinese (you know, we want to eat like the locals). They had a small buffet but it had several great dishes and so we ate well. Then back to the park for some more fuitball.
One thing I forgot to mention about last night's game....the park is located right beside a canal (of course, as it is hard not to be near a canal here) and so if your shot on net goes wide, you are in trouble. While the
Het Kaas Museum
The de Weistaar cheese museum. They sell every kind of Dutch cheese. kids were playing with the Dutch, one big kid hammered his shot over the net and sure enough....in the canal! One of the girls yells out "Ah, we've got a schwimma!" After much struggling they managed to borrow a giant net from the fishermen and fish out the ball!
The other thing here that is interesting, most nights there are quite a lot of boys fishing along the canal overnight with tents. They typically drive over, and unload their gear which is extensive. The first night we watched 3 men load up a dolly cart and push it over to the canal! The fishing rod bags are gigantic (about 10 feet long at least) and they bring tons of other gear including chairs, a case of Hertog Jan (favourite local beer which costs $6.37 for 12 beers so is considered premium priced) and more!
Today when we were by the sea, there were lots of people fishing along the canal. There are small docks built about every 30 feet along the canal. Each dock had someone set up to fish for the day (same thing: tents, chairs, etc). There are also lots of kids fishing around the canals
Intercity bike path
There are bikes trails that you can take from city to city. Sometimes they are roadside. Other times, they cut across a farmers field, like this one. around our house most of the time too.
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