Getting a breath of fresh air on the beach and walking in the dunes
Visiting the beach in winter may not sound so appealing, but it is! And it’s healthy too! On Christmas Day I took a lovely walk on the beach with my family and we also walked a bit through the dunes. How beautiful and fun it is there! Yes, even in winter!
Cold but tasty
It is human nature to stay inside when it is cold outside. But sometimes it is also nice to go for a winter walk. On Christmas Day, I thought it might be nice to go to the beach. Okay, I had to talk some sense into the men, but eventually we got in the car. We chose to drive to Kijkduin. The weather was perfect! It was cold, but not too and it was dry. There was hardly any wind and the sun peeked through the clouds now and then. Ideal walking weather! More people had decided to go to the beach that day, because it was quite busy.
Viewpoint
We could, of course, return via the beach, but we decided instead to seek the shelter of the dunes and walk back that way. On the way we passed a high dune with a viewing platform on top. We climbed this 33-meter-high dune and from there we had a beautiful view of The Hague. Among other things, we could clearly see The Penthouse. On the other side you had a wide view over the beach and because it was a clear day we could see the Ferris wheel of Scheveningen in the distance.
Into the dunes
We were pleasantly surprised by the varied landscape of the dunes! The dune area of the Westduinpark and the Wapendak is a great walking area and runs all the way to Scheveningen. The Westduinpark and the Wapendak are part of the National Park Hollandse Duinen. This nature reserve runs from Hoek van Holland to Hillegom and is about 43 kilometers long. In addition to dunes, the bulb-growing areas and country estates also fall under this national park. Truly a very beautiful part of the Netherlands! We only walked a tiny part of it, but even that was very worthwhile!
Surprise!
While walking we already encountered some wildlife, but we didn’t really think about it. Until we came face to face with a beautiful black Scottish Highlander! Further on, near a water basin, there were many more. They were, without realizing it themselves, a crowd pleaser. Super fun to see. When we returned home, our cheeks were glowing and we were able to sit down to the gourmet with a somewhat lesser sense of guilt. After all, we had had a wonderful active afternoon! We will definitely do this again and then we will take in an even bigger area.
