# Tag 4 @ the beach

Good morning dear readers,

after yesterday's day in the glorious sunshine, April is now living up to its name. It rained overnight and continued in the morning. That's the decision made - we're continuing. Initially on the highway, which I find boring. I can't see the coast from here anyway, so we turn off just before The Hague and make our way through the city chaos to the beach. We find ourselves in the well-known seaside resort of Scheveningen, located directly in front of The Hague. On the way here, we pass, among other things, the International Court of Justice (Hague Tribunal).

We also find a parking space, although only for cars. But it's the off-season and there's no one around. We actually wanted to take a walk on the promenade, but the sight didn't convince us. Scheveningen consists of many high-rises, has a fishing-port and a long beach promenade with shops, restaurants, sun terraces, and an aquarium. The main attractions are the miniature city of Madurodam, and a 381 m long pier with an observation tower and ferris wheel.

The sight didn't really convince us. When I was asked to buy a parking ticket for €6.50 per hour, I refused. Let's keep going!

Where to?

The place is located right on the coast in front of the Rhine estuary and therefore in front of the port of Rotterdam - or so I thought.

Actually, Hoek van Holland is the bathtub of the people of Rotterdam. Huge beaches and dune landscapes are easily accessible and equipped with huge beach clubs. There are also beach houses, apartments on stilts, and - can you believe it - a terminus of the Rotterdam Metro, which was inaugurated 3 weeks ago.

Summer can come. 

Wrong: Rhine estuary - because it doesn't actually have a singular estuary, but forms the Rhine-Meuse Delta with the Meuse River.

A geography lesson follows (I must not have paid attention back then).

While the Rhine still carries this name in Germany until here, that changes after the confluence with the Meuse. From now on, each branch and each fork gets its own name. The Lower Rhine becomes the Lek, Rhine water and Meuse water are now called Waal, and new names are given again when passing through the port facilities with numerous canals (see above).

The place where we are now is the Nieuwe Waterweg and the mouth into the North Sea is called the Maasmond. Where the hell did the Rhine go, which carries by far the longest way and the most water?

In any case, there is busy ship traffic here, and you can see from the visible port facilities that one of the largest seaports in the world is located here. The port is among other things the most important trading point for crude oil in Europe, about half of all goods handled here are oil. It is pumped through pipelines to the neighboring countries of Belgium and Germany. Large parts are also processed in their own refineries in the port. 

The port employs over 300,000 people.

How do I know? Wikipedia - we studied it extensively during our 4 o'clock beer.

By the way, we found an ultra-great parking space by chance. When we couldn't see the sea again because the dunes blocked the view, I turned right at an opportunity and ended up on the beach boulevard. There were already several motorhomes lined up just behind a curve. The app Park4Night confirmed that you can park here without any problems. And there was still space available for us. When we parked in the afternoon, there were maybe 8-10 motorhomes. In the evening, the place was completely full with more than 20 motorhomes, and more were still coming. Parking for free

And we slept wonderfully.