Egmond aan Zee. Day Three.

Wanna know what Dutch looked like as a baby?? Kinda like this.



Sunday morning, day three of our trip, started with another visit from the entire clan—including the twins! Wow. They're LOUD and rambunctious! But what do you expect from a Ton's namesake??

The family departed around noon and we were picked up by an old friend of Ton's, Michel, so that we could spend the afternoon with him, his wife, Denise and their little girl Is-A-Bella. That's how she said her name—totally adorable!!!

Went to their house in Purmerend, and headed out to one of their favorite spots, Egmond aan Zee, a little beach town a little over 50 km northwest of Amsterdam. It was a gorgeous afternoon so lots of people were out getting their last licks of summer. We had coffee at Het Wapen and enjoyed the sunshine. We also had the traditional dutch snack, bitterballen, meat so finely minced that it is almost a paste, mixed with spices, rolled in bread crumbs and deep-fried. Very good with wine and not bad with coffee, either! We also had kaas soufflés which isn't a soufflé at all, but puff pasty stuffed with cheese.

After that, we took a stroll on the beach so Is-A-Bella could play in the sand.



Beaches in Holland aren't like Myrtle Beach or the Outer Banks. They're wide—VERY wide. Take the visible amount of beach and multiply it by ten. That comes close to how wide it is. Seriously WIDE. And even though there was a storm over the North Sea, it never seemed rough.



Egmond aan Zee also has a lighthouse! Which, once again, is nothing like our lighthouses, Dutch lighthouses always seem terribly short and stumpy. Maybe Hatteras has spoiled me. I don't know.



This light house was named for a great sea hero (all Dutch heroes are Sea heroes. And they're all GREAT. Never forgot that while in the Netherlands. And for Gods sake, Do NOT talk about the war!!)



Jan Carolus Josephus van Speijk is famous because he blew up his ship and killed his crew rather than be taken by the enemy. More specifically, he despised the Belgians and their fight to separate themselves from the Dutch. So when his ship was blown off course in a storm and he made port in Antwerp, he blew up his ship rather than give it up to the Belgians. His famous quote is "Dan liever de lucht in" (better to blow up). He is deemed as so loyal to his country that the king decreed that the royal navy would forever have a ship named in his honor. Dutch boy just says he was crazy—if he wanted to kill himself that's great but his crew??? I kind of agree with van Speijk. Better to die like a lion than live like a dog.




You can see the rest of the photos on on my Flickr account, Be warned it's mainly family photos and shots of people you don't know!!