Day 12

We started the morning off slowly (like most mornings so far) and then Ineke dropped us all off at the train station closest to her house so that we could catch the train to Scheveningen. We had had this planned for a few days and had sorted out trains and transfers earlier so we were all set to go but we hadn't counted on the ticket machines at the station only taking coins and debit cards. I had unfortunately just cleared out my wallet of cards that I hadn't been using and who carries €40 of change in their pockets?

Obviously the train station was designed for locals making short trips. Unfortunately by the time we realized this, Ineke was long gone. Luckily there was a tram stop just outside the station so we headed down and got on the next tram to Central Station to get our train tickets there.

Central Station was frustrating. It's currently being renovated so a number of accesses have been blocked off and turns out that the only way you can buy train tickets with cash is if you go and line up in the ticket office. Not a huge thing but very disappointing after coming from China with their awesome subway system.

We finally got our tickets and made it to the train. The ride took about half an hour to get to Den Haag Central and then we changed over onto a tram to take us to Scheveningen. We arrived close to 12 when we had been aiming to arrive around 11. We walked down to the beachfront before turning around again and getting a quick bite to eat at Burger King (highly nutritious) and then headed back down to the beachfront again.

It was a lovely day to be at the beach. We walked up one half along the topside and then walked back along the beach. The whole way there were shops and faces and restaurants lining the beach. The places right on the beach even had their own deck chairs and wind shelters for their clientele to sunbake while they ate and drank. It was certainly interesting to see. Apparently in summer the whole place is packed and you can barely move without stepping on someone. Checkout our beach walking:

There was a big pier which we walked down. At the end of the pier there were two buildings on either side. One was a casino and the other was a random pancake house and bungy jumping off a lookout.

One thing that Steve really really needs is a Dutch sporting T-Shirt. Too many times has he needed one and not had bright orange in his wardrobe. To solve this, we bought a soccer top on the beach. Go the Netherlands! (boo Spain...)

We walked back along the pier and found somewhere to sit down to have a drink. The cafe we chose was really busy and we were running out of time because we had to head back in to Rotterdam to go and see more family so we ended up leaving and just grabbing a drink from a little takeaway and finding a bench.

We headed back up and caught the tram back to Den Haag central before getting the train back to Rotterdam. I snoozed on the way back : ) Once we arrived back we changed over to the Metro to take us to Steve's Aunt's place. Here we had the same trouble as the trains in that none of our cards worked in the ticket machines and we didn't have enough change as the machines don't take paper money so we had to go and find the ticket office which was located about as far away from the metro station as possible with the renovations. This line was a lot slower as well. We finally got our tickets and headed back into the Metro station to head out to Rhoon. We had been aiming to arrive around 3 but by the time we had stuffed around with the tickets and getting on the train again, it was closer to 4.

We left the Rhoon train station and was met by Fritz, Steve's uncle through marriage. We had to wonder whether he had been making random trips to the train station to see if we had arrived, as none of us had phoned him to tell him which train we were arriving on.

The rest of the night was spent with Steve's Aunt and her family (husband, daughter and son-in-law and their daughter/granddaughter). It was a nice night, although as they didn't really speak any English, there was a lot of Dutch to be had for all that night. We had a standard Dutch dinner (green beans, potatoes, pork, sausage and gravy).

Later that night we drove to the old houses and units where Steve and his parents used to live before they went back to Australia. Apparently it hasn't changed that much other than the trees have gotten bigger. We went back to Steve's Aunt's place for a cuppa before Steve's Aunt, his cousin and her husband drove us home, where I fell asleep, just for something different... When we got back they all came up to have a sticky beak at our rooms before we farewelled them until Saturday where we would see them at the airport.