[PHOTO ESSAY] A day on a Dutch beach

Living in The Netherlands means I was raised with four seasons. Every year starts grey and gloomy, maybe even 'sub zero degrees Celcius' cold, then spring comes, trees start to blossom, the first t-shirts can be worn again, summer comes, sometimes more than 30-35 degrees Celcius hot, and after the summer slowly trees turn yellow, orange, red... And it's nearing grey and gloomy again.

Now, living in 4 seasons means learning to appreciate different aspects of each season. Especially winter is a hard one to learn to appreciate. Cold isn't pleasant although I'm rarely really cold when others might be. Snow is only fun for pictures, but with a physical mobility issue it's pretty much isolating me. The days are short since the sun goes down before the evening starts.

One thing I learned to love is going to the beach in autumn and winter. Wearing warm clothes, hiding your face in a big scarf, feeling the wind coming from the sea through your hair, almost slapping you in the face... It's an amazing way to feel alive, the senses are all on, and the intensity of it all is pretty amazing.

The 'reward' for such an outing would always be a cup of hot chocolate milk in one of the beach houses that is brave enough to stay open during this 'not beach season'. Coming in from the cold, wrapping your hands around a hot mug... Fires on, sand all over the wooden floors.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have my friend message me if I wanted to do something - when I mentioned the beach she was into it immediately. So we jumped in her car and drove to the nearest beach.

We parked behind the strip of beach houses overlooking the beach. Walked a bit through the dunes, just to get cold enough so we could justify our hot treats in the form of coffees and teas.
I noticed all the off-season details while walking: unused parking spots, badly maintained wood, some garbage 'left behind' instead of cleaned up to please the summer visitors.

My favourite part was the 'Beachclub Royal', which was royally touched by the rainy and windy weather the past few months, showing clear signs of loose wooden planks, of bad quality paint, and simply of off-season quality.

While writing this piece I realize it might be a lot of fun to recreate this exact series of pictures in the summer and see the differences. Everything brushed up and painted and cleaned up again for the summer visitors? Or is it just in my mind that this place looks more polished in the summer?

MORE DUTCH BEACHES

All photography on steemit.com/@soyrosa is created and edited by me, Rosanne Dubbeld, 2005-2018. Contact me if you want to discuss licensing or collaborations on creative projects :-)

[PHOTO ESSAY] A day on a Dutch beach | After-season beauty