Zandvoort

Amsterdam experienced its one week of summer of the year recently, with virtually cloudless skies and zero rain from Sunday to Friday, and high temperatures in the upper 70's and lower 80's. I'd initially planned on seeing The Dark Knight Rises on that Tuesday evening, but a friend suggested that we go to Zandvoort, a beach town that is a short train ride from Amsterdam instead.

I'd heard that the Dutch beaches are notoriously packed whenever the temperatures get into the 70's and the clouds disappear, and I was expecting to be shoulder-to-shoulder with sweaty sunbathers, like some outdoor Bikram yoga class. It may have been this way during the day, but at 6:00pm the beach was pretty sparsely populated. Which was pretty surprising given how comfortable the air and sand felt, and how beautiful the scenery was.

Some people wore normal clothes; others wore swim wear; others went topless (both men and women). Sea birds stalked people's food and fought each other when scraps were abandoned. There were frisbees, glasses of wine and bottles of beer, couples snuggling in the sand and parents walking their children up and down the wet sands, and people photographing the North Sea. 

The last of the beach goers gathered at the coast around 10:00pm to watch the sun sink below the watery horizon.

This is the same area where these pictures were taken last September: http://abqtoadam.blogspot.nl/2011/09/dutch-dunes.html

Things look quite a bit different when the rains retreat and the temperatures rise.