26 April ’04, Monday. Hello from Zandvoort, NL. We pulled away from Amsterdam after breakfast and headed West past Haarlem and on to the North Sea and Zandvoort. We stopped in one of the suburbs of Haarlem for groceries and didn’t stop until we found the gates of our next “pitch”. This was a short trip and we saw some beautiful countryside along the way. As usual for the Netherlands we enjoyed the architecture of all the homes and businesses and of course the wonderful canals. Our campsite is right across the road from the North Sea beaches and about 2 blocks from town center. We got “Bumble Bee" settled and headed out to do some exploring. The boardwalk is just across the street, so we walked towards town looking for lunch and exploring all the new sites before us. We came upon a sea food vendor in his outdoor kitchen/trailer. Let me tell you, everything that he had looked great so our decision wasn’t easy. The only thing that Louise and I totally agreed upon was next time we would only order 1 meal and split it. The portions we received were huge, with a capitol “H” and tasted fantastic. After filling our stomachs we continued our walk, looking out at the beautiful sea, the sunbathers (a few topless and still others completely nude), and some hardy bathers who even late this evening (8:45pm) headed into the cold waters. Zandvoort is celebrating it’s 700th Birthday this year. Heck, we think 100 years is a lot. Zandvoort was first settled on the 25th of April 1304. It started out as a fishing village and now, well, a “Sea Side Resort” complete with real nice Casinos, hotels, great restaurants, and one of the worlds best racing tracks. This afternoon there were time trials going on for national motorcycling competition. Zandvoort is a cozy village with lots of sidewalks and very few roads in the village it’s self. The beach has “Pavilions” all along the beach front. The first 7 are for those that want to bath in the “all together” with the remaining 28 to handle the rest of those that enjoy the beach. Now a Pavilion is a space that has a restaurant/bar with raised seating and bathing areas that are sheltered from the winds by being surrounded by glass. They also have private wind shelters that will handle 2 beach lounge chairs that line the beach area in front and down to just before the water high tide. Louise wanted to see the sunset tonight so about 8pm we wondered over to the beach to watch. Just around 9pm we saw what was just about “Sunset” as the sun went behind some low clouds and eventually went below the sea. Now this isn’t the 26th of April back in Seattle with the sun still shining at 9pm. Tomorrow Haarlem and then back here for the “Nudist Beaches”.