Catching up with the children we spent a week and a half on the Strand Campsite in Groede. Weather was very hot some days and rainy others.
Most days we spent some time at the beach, some time at a beach bar and then evenings at the campsite restaurant.
Getting to the campsite I decided to cycle the last 150km from Calais to Groede cycling through France, Belgium and finally the Netherlands. It was tough going with a 20kmph head wind pretty much the entire route but was enjoyable, and meant I get to have two bikes on holiday 🚴🚵
STRAVA LINK (150km)
One of the evenings once it had started to cool down we went to the ping pong table and played for an hour or so before dinner. I cut my foot clambering through the brambles to retrieve a ball and spent the rest of the holiday with a big cut across the bridge of my foot. Luckily it looked worse than it was and just looked unpleasant.
Monday night was bingo night and we rolled up our competitive sleeves, got our table at the bar and settled in for some Dutch bingo. Despite our best efforts to win the inflatable unicorn and the bbq, we only came away with a Groede bag (to go with our other 10) with a few magazines in Dutch.
We cycled to a beach bar that we’d visited last time called DOK14. It was a bit of a longer cycle (7km each way) but got a lovely spot on the veranda and had yummy cocktails wine and food.
Potentially due to having giant shrimp meals three days in a row, or maybe due to drinking Rose non-stop for weeks, my gout started to flair up. Luckily Naproxen is available over the counter in the Netherlands so after cycling to Breskens one day I picked up some medication and self prescribed the solution.
On one of the cooler days we went out for a 30km cycle through some of the local villages stopping for cake, ijs cream and downpours.
STRAVA LINK (fam 30km)
We took part in a murder mystery event in the evening with some lovely Dutch families wandering around the campsite being scared by each of the Animation team dressed up and invariably hiding in bushes.
The last day of the holiday we wanted to combine a bit of what everyone wanted to do so we cycled to Groede Podium, had cake, cycled to Beachhouse 25 (our usual spot which served AIX wine) then kids and Juli played on nudey beach while I stayed in the bar drinking wine.
