Zeeland

Skip forward a few days now to Wednesday the 29th of July -- the day we arrived in Zeeland, Holland. For those who don't know, Zeeland is where New Zealand gets its name (spelt Nieuw Zeeland in Dutch). It's the southernmost province of Holland and is famous for its beaches. We stayed with Lotte's mum and grandma in a very small house (het strandhuisje) right on the sand at Vlissingen. Sort of like a bathing box with mod-cons. I really like this photo of the sunset over the beach. I snapped it from the front of the strandhuisje looking up along the beach just before 10pm. The days are very long right now, with twilight lasting until after 11pm.

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Here's a shot of me right in front of the strandhuisje looking about as relaxed as I can be. I must say it probably looks a tiny bit warmer than it actually was there, but while the wind is bracing, when the sun shines it's very pleasant. I can't say it does much for the temperature of the water though. I went for one swim and it felt about as warm as freshly melted snow.

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One of the really fun things about this beach is that it's actually right at the end of the river that leads to the port at Antwerpe, so about every 2 minutes you see a huge ship only about 1km off the beach. So spotting ships through the binoculars is one of the main passtimes.

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Our other main passtime was playing Yahtzee. Also in the picture are Lotte's mum, dad and grandma (or in Dutch, Oma).

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