Strand-ed

I often forget that The Hague is a beach town. A quick 15 minute bike ride due West and I could enjoy sun and surf any ole time I'd like - well maybe the surf part. This past Saturday was a gorgeous day, so we rounded up the pooch for his first trip to the strand (beach).

There are essentially two developed beach areas in The Hague, Scheveningen (pronounced "skev en ing uh") being the largest. With hotels, restaurants, a casino and shopping, Scheveningen is a favorite neighborhood of wealthy expats, particularly those on stipends. It's said that rents and housing prices in Scheveningen and the even nicer neighborhood of Wassenar are inflated due to corporate housing allowances. A Shell spouse in my Dutch class confessed that they receive 5,000EUR per month just for rent! With a use it or lose it policy, most tend to max out their allowance just because they can.

On this day we took Nigel down to the quieter Kijkduin (pronounced "kike down"), also ticking off his first tram ride. He's not the most carefree dog, but he seemed to do just fine. I think he's finally adjusting to city life, this one.



The beach was nicer than I expected - clean, white sand with a notable absence of dog poo in spite of the Winter-time "dogs allowed" policy. It was a great day out, and in the bright sunshine it wasn't too cold. We even enjoyed coffee and toasties (aka grilled-cheese sandwich) outside on the boardwalk.