With my time right in the centre of Europe coming to a close I decided to drop by to visit my friends in the Netherlands once more. THis time the bus left me in the dark empty streets of the Hague early at 8am on Friday morning. With the tourist office closed (but the bakeries open yay) I did as I always do and wandered off into the streets, pastry in hand, to follow the occasional signpost towards the centre of the town.

The rising sun peered through the gloomy clouds just as I reached Binnenhof. Where I spent a good half hour enjoying the sun rising.

From there I headed down to Vredespaleis (closed because it was too early) and then despite the looming grey skies I continued on the extra few km through parks and woods towards the sea which had been calling since I stepped a foot off the bus.

Although I adore the mountains, I really couldn’t live somewhere without ocean access either and happily spent the next hour or two covering my boots with sand and slobber from my gorgeous new best friend.

As if wasn’t perfect enough (once you turned your back on the promenade – that’s not really my kind of beach/coastline) when I started out towards the kilometres of dunes the clouds began to disappear and the skies turned that brilliant blue resulting in the chilly temperature cranking up a degree or two and enough for my freckles to start appearing within minutes.

It’s lovely to just walk along the sea, crunching over sea shells along the way, past the pier (opening in 2015), around the promenade and its various artistic exhibitions every few hundred metres. What I was a little less impressed with was the cubic metres of sand being pumped onto the beach from offshore…..(second picture down, the ship and tractor are just at the edges).

After another km or two, the coastline curves out into a harbour with a great view back over the seaside area of the town, and by following the waters edge you pass two small harbours (with discounted snow gear stores? and fish stores with droves of beady eyed seagulls waiting for their breakfast) before I chose to drop into a small cafe to get my breakfast.

There are trams that take you back to the city from the area, I kept on strolling, finishing a nice circuit with another km or two along the canal with some gorgeous little houses and back into the city centre. To the kings residence, a peek through the eclectic shopping streets, back to Binnenhof and finally onto my friends house at around 3 o’clock, just in time for tea. Preliminary updates finished it was on to Amsterdam (around 40 minutes by train from the Hague) to meet a lifelong bestie, her work colleagues and a pub or two for a drink. Which as always turned into a few, and then a few more. The Hague – you’ve got me hooked already!