Rain rain go away

On this first day of summer I cannot but not pray to the God of the sun to start doing some work and show us what summer is all about. Each morning I check the weather in 2 places, in the Netherlands and in Malta. This lately is quite frustrating since it seems that in the north of Europe the sun doesn't want to show itself, while in my motherland the forecast always includes a very bright sun!

So here I am dancing the sun song and praying to the gods to fix this problem! We surely deserve to spend some time at the beach or bbq'ing in the garden.

[Image Credits: Supermarket]

Tropical Weather

Hearing the radio in the mornings it sounds like I live in the Caribbean instead of the Netherlands. The weather report has been reporting tropical weather for the past ten days. In the Netherlands once the mercury goes above 25°C, the weather is considered tropical. This past week we've had great weather, so we made sure to use these tropical days wisely: by spending our weekend at the beach.

Kijkduin is just a ten minute bike ride away from home. Just after breakfast we geared up in swim wear and off we went to get our tan - safe tan, with protection cream added every couple of hours. You see, I need to tan up before leaving to my vacation Malta. Otherwise all my Maltese friends and family will think I'm sick. In many past visits I noticed that I can get so white that it doesn't look healthy anymore. And there I was thinking that as a Mediterranean girl I should have a natural tan.

Tips for going to the beach in the Netherlands:

• Bike or use trains to go the beach. The roads will be really busy on tropical weather days, you'll wish you never went to the beach after a long time in the queue
• If you want a sunbed make sure you head to the beach early. Or if you have in-laws make sure they go to the beach early so that they reserve extra sunbeds for you. Thanks W & A!
• Just because it's really warm, don't assume that the sea will be as well. The North Sea is still very cold. I only managed quick dips to cool myself.
• Stay to the beach till late, the sunsets are just beautiful. All the west-coast of the Netherlands is a long strand of beach which directly faces the setting sun.

• Many beach bars have parties on weekend evenings. Going to the bars early in the afternoon will give you free entrance to the parties in the evening.
• Some beach restaurants offer bbq service. You just book for a number of people and you'll get a started bbq and all the food required for the bbq. All you need to do is order your drinks and cook the meat!

 [Image Credits: Disney Clipart ]