With a large family - finding hotel accomodations for a reasonable price is not always easy. I came across the place where we stayed online. We rented a little 6-bed bungalow (perfect for us) at the Vacation-park Vlugtenburg along the North Sea. It looked like a great little place, close to the sea -and it was! (only a few minor necessities missing)...read on.
Dunes - and the path to the beach - it was a walk - but once we were on the beach -it was all worth it!
Back at our little bungalow - we probably had the best spot - privately tucked off on an end. We could sit out on our little pad and enjoy being outside, while the kids played on the embankment that surrounded us (only one mishap there...Silas ran into some itchweed).
One little (major) necessity that we realised was missing were TOWELS. No where on the website did it mention that these were not provided. But I suppose this being more of a "camping" type place one would assume that you should bring your own! I didn't even have beach towels along for the kids (I guess I was thinking that in April it might be a bit chilly yet on the beach, especially in the North Sea and I sort of thought the kids would play at the beach but not necessarily swim in the ocean....I was wrong!) That being said- while Jer was at the grocery store picking up a few things he found these dish towels for under a Euro a piece...so he picked up a few...we'd make do...but they hardly cover you (thus the funny picture) and they were made out of a really horid type of material that sort of smelled like burnt popcorn.
Being the organized mother that I am...I decided to plan a few meals for us, since we were staying at a place with a full kitchen. So I made a lasagne earlier in the week and froze it. Thinking that 1) it would keep the rest of the stuff in our cooler cool and 2) it would be perfect to have lasagne for supper after a long day of driving and touring. Upon arrival at our bungalow we realised that we had no OVEN. There was a microwave oven - but not a real OVEN. That means no lasagne and the other meals I planned as well (needing an OVEN) were no longer going to work! Cereal anyone???
Of which I might add needed to be eaten from tiny soup bowls with tiny tea spoons....we'd make do!
On their website it states that they are only 300 meters from the sea. As a crow flies this may be true...but in reality you had to walk up a steep embankment (dike), then down the path about 500 meters to another path that actually led to the sea. This path was another 500 meters long and passed another dike as well as dunes. We basically had to walk uphill to get to the beach. But I suppose being in Holland, where most of the land has been taken from the sea and is below sea level, this makes sense.
Going for a little (long) walk - up on the dike.
Dunes - and the path to the beach - it was a walk - but once we were on the beach -it was all worth it!
Back at our little bungalow - we probably had the best spot - privately tucked off on an end. We could sit out on our little pad and enjoy being outside, while the kids played on the embankment that surrounded us (only one mishap there...Silas ran into some itchweed).
One little (major) necessity that we realised was missing were TOWELS. No where on the website did it mention that these were not provided. But I suppose this being more of a "camping" type place one would assume that you should bring your own! I didn't even have beach towels along for the kids (I guess I was thinking that in April it might be a bit chilly yet on the beach, especially in the North Sea and I sort of thought the kids would play at the beach but not necessarily swim in the ocean....I was wrong!) That being said- while Jer was at the grocery store picking up a few things he found these dish towels for under a Euro a piece...so he picked up a few...we'd make do...but they hardly cover you (thus the funny picture) and they were made out of a really horid type of material that sort of smelled like burnt popcorn.
Being the organized mother that I am...I decided to plan a few meals for us, since we were staying at a place with a full kitchen. So I made a lasagne earlier in the week and froze it. Thinking that 1) it would keep the rest of the stuff in our cooler cool and 2) it would be perfect to have lasagne for supper after a long day of driving and touring. Upon arrival at our bungalow we realised that we had no OVEN. There was a microwave oven - but not a real OVEN. That means no lasagne and the other meals I planned as well (needing an OVEN) were no longer going to work! Cereal anyone???
Of which I might add needed to be eaten from tiny soup bowls with tiny tea spoons....we'd make do!
Fortunately the place did offer FREE PIZZA one night. So we headed down to the restaurant and ate there....all smiles for 6 free pizzas please!
The other little (major) necessity that we were lacking was toilet paper. I noticed on the first morning (while Jer was at the store) that we were getting low on toilet paper. There was only one roll - and no extra roll to be found anywhere in the bungalow. I made a mental note to tell the kids to use it sparingly - however that mental note didn't become vocal until it was too late. 0Jer returned from the grocery store and kindly asked if we had any more toilet paper....um, it was gone already....oops forgot to tell the kids not to use so much! And he had just been to the store, where he could have easily picked up some! He wasn't about to go back (since it was an adventure in itself for him to locate the store). So we'd have to make do with what we had - one partial roll of paper towels, some of those little packets of tissues you keep in your purse, and baby wipes!
So we have some funny memories of our stay! But all in all it was a great place. We had beds and bedding -and a roof over our heads - and food to eat, even if it wasn't exactly the food I had planned on.
Here is a photo of Shelby at the bungalow - she looks happy!
1 comment:
This post actually brought back great memories from an ill fated childhood vacation of my own in northern Minnesota. Hilarious! The kids won't forget that for sure.
Post a Comment