Today will be the last day in a while that Rihanna Gaga and me have breakfast at the Scheveningen beach, because tomorrow, we leave for a holiday in Ireland. It's a pity she's still so young: she's not very excited when I tell her we are going to travel. It's not the first time we travel with her, though. Last december, we went to Egypt and in February I travelled to Sweden with her, to visit my dear aunt.
In any case, today we're still in Scheveningen for our weekly breakfast at the beach ritual and in this case, we have chosen Strandclub Doen! Stepping onto the terrace of Doen! is like stepping into another world. Gone is the beachside buzz, gone is the surfer vibe - that is quite strong on this particular stretch at the southernmost end of Scheveningen's boulevard - and gone is the sense of being in Holland. Doen! has secluded its terrace from the boulevard with a wooden wall and beyond it lies a quiet serentiy that calls forth connotations of yachting, Wham! videos from the eighties or "sliding a line down behind a sofa in Sain Tropez". The terrace is a terraced series of platforms with lounges, semilounges and tables and chairs overlooking the sea. With its white wooden floors, canvas pillows, the odd Buddha and Moët & Chandon parasols, Doen! has clearly opted for a sophisticated, almost decadent vibe. This is where people come - or so it feels - to discuss Wimbledon or horse racing, instead of the FIFA World Cup. Every detail is right, the white floor is spotless despite the recent raifalls and the waiter is quietly professional.
"On an outing with the little one?" he asks me. This is something that has always struck me about the Dutch: this need to state the obvious as a question. What does one answer to something like that? I'm always lost for words, although I guess the right answer is stating the obvious back: "indeed, on an outing with the little one. She sure likes beach clubs, this one!" I could add: "As a matter of fact, we do this every week and then I write a blog about it in which I judge your beach club, you, and the other customers. Most of the times I'm quite positive, but I can be downright nasty." Instead, I answer with a "yeah....." which I leave hanging in the air so that any conversation I could have had with our waiter is dead before it begins.
I order the set breakfast, which promises an omelet, different breads and an assortiment of sweets, together with either coffee, cappucino or tea. To that, the menu adds "no variations possible". I thought a set breakfast is always a take-it-or-leave-it affair, but apparently the waiters of this club were constantly bothered by people asking if they could substitute the sweets for more omelette or something - and it is not the kind of beach club where the waiters want to be bothered. Hence that line, I guess.
Rihanna Gaga is in an incredibly good mood and dances enthusiastically to the music, even though it is not her taste - at least, as far as I know, but maybe her taste has changed, For one reason or the other, the beach club has a Latin American radio station on that plays soul classics, together with easy listening standards, smooth rock ballads and the odd bossa nova song. It only adds to the decadent atmosphere.
Rihanna Gaga has almost cracked the code for walking: she's been brooding on this for weeks and can now stand with her back against a wall without holding on to it. In fact, leaning against the backside of the round sofa on which we are sitting, which is quite low, she manages to balance her pelvis against it in such a way that she has her arms free. She is overcome with joy and like every new trick she has learned, it has to be repeated ad infinitum. No one knows the value of practice, practice, practice like a baby!
When breakfast is brought, it is perfectly in tune with the decoration and atmosphere of the club. It is presented in a frame holding three plates, one above the other. The upper plate contains omelette, cheese, salmon and bacon, the one in the middle waffles, strawberries and a Belgian chocolate, while the lower plate contains diverse kinds of bread. I have chosen tea instead of coffee (I rarely drank coffee until about a year ago and now I drink it everyday and I want to stop that as it does not have a good effect on me) which comes with an assortiment of good quality teabags. At €15:00 this is really not a bad deal. In fact, only Peukie's and Copacabana's breakfasts were in the same league, so this is definitely in the top 3.
Rihanna Gaga is so active, that I constantly have to watch whether she is not pulling some stunt that will leave her falling from the couch (she remains blissfully ignorant of this as I save her from painfull drops to the floor and sometimes even gets a bit irritated if I snatch her just before she falls off the edge, stumbles backwards off the couch or keels over the back of the couch). So I put her on the floor, which looks as if you could eat off it. This was both a good and a bad idea. Good, because I can eat while she crawls to her heart delight, constantly babbling away about I don't know what - but, judging from the serious look on her face and the occasional nod she gives while talking to me, it is of utmost importance. Bad, because she is in a very explorative mood today and has crossed most of the terrace before I have finished even half of one of the plates. Stairs, edges and small puddles of water are her favourite spots and I constantly have to jump up to pick her up and put her a bit closer to me. So after a while, I let her sit on the couch next to me again and share the strawberries and some bread with her. It goes down well.
We are the only ones at Strandclub Doen! this morning, which increases the serenity of the place, which is only occasionally disturbed. First, this is done by some very cheeky seagulls that plunder our table when I am gone for a moment to watch over Rihanna Gaga while she explores some stairs - she can go up and even down them nowadays. Second and more annoyingly, several jet fighters fly quite low over the beach at a certain moment.
I could sit here for hours, sipping Moët & Chandon (I've always been very receptible to advertisements, show me a beer commercial and I immediately feel like drinking beer, while I don't even like beer). In fact, that is the only mistake in an otherwise perfect breakfast at the beach: I should have ordered some bubbles with the breakfast, to enhance the feeling of decadence around here. However, we have to leave. It is almost twelve o'clock and my mother - and Rihanna Gaga's grandmother - is visiting us soon. Later that day, Rihanna Gaga will manage to stand upright without any support for the first time.
In any case, today we're still in Scheveningen for our weekly breakfast at the beach ritual and in this case, we have chosen Strandclub Doen! Stepping onto the terrace of Doen! is like stepping into another world. Gone is the beachside buzz, gone is the surfer vibe - that is quite strong on this particular stretch at the southernmost end of Scheveningen's boulevard - and gone is the sense of being in Holland. Doen! has secluded its terrace from the boulevard with a wooden wall and beyond it lies a quiet serentiy that calls forth connotations of yachting, Wham! videos from the eighties or "sliding a line down behind a sofa in Sain Tropez". The terrace is a terraced series of platforms with lounges, semilounges and tables and chairs overlooking the sea. With its white wooden floors, canvas pillows, the odd Buddha and Moët & Chandon parasols, Doen! has clearly opted for a sophisticated, almost decadent vibe. This is where people come - or so it feels - to discuss Wimbledon or horse racing, instead of the FIFA World Cup. Every detail is right, the white floor is spotless despite the recent raifalls and the waiter is quietly professional.
"On an outing with the little one?" he asks me. This is something that has always struck me about the Dutch: this need to state the obvious as a question. What does one answer to something like that? I'm always lost for words, although I guess the right answer is stating the obvious back: "indeed, on an outing with the little one. She sure likes beach clubs, this one!" I could add: "As a matter of fact, we do this every week and then I write a blog about it in which I judge your beach club, you, and the other customers. Most of the times I'm quite positive, but I can be downright nasty." Instead, I answer with a "yeah....." which I leave hanging in the air so that any conversation I could have had with our waiter is dead before it begins.
I order the set breakfast, which promises an omelet, different breads and an assortiment of sweets, together with either coffee, cappucino or tea. To that, the menu adds "no variations possible". I thought a set breakfast is always a take-it-or-leave-it affair, but apparently the waiters of this club were constantly bothered by people asking if they could substitute the sweets for more omelette or something - and it is not the kind of beach club where the waiters want to be bothered. Hence that line, I guess.Rihanna Gaga is in an incredibly good mood and dances enthusiastically to the music, even though it is not her taste - at least, as far as I know, but maybe her taste has changed, For one reason or the other, the beach club has a Latin American radio station on that plays soul classics, together with easy listening standards, smooth rock ballads and the odd bossa nova song. It only adds to the decadent atmosphere.
Rihanna Gaga has almost cracked the code for walking: she's been brooding on this for weeks and can now stand with her back against a wall without holding on to it. In fact, leaning against the backside of the round sofa on which we are sitting, which is quite low, she manages to balance her pelvis against it in such a way that she has her arms free. She is overcome with joy and like every new trick she has learned, it has to be repeated ad infinitum. No one knows the value of practice, practice, practice like a baby!
When breakfast is brought, it is perfectly in tune with the decoration and atmosphere of the club. It is presented in a frame holding three plates, one above the other. The upper plate contains omelette, cheese, salmon and bacon, the one in the middle waffles, strawberries and a Belgian chocolate, while the lower plate contains diverse kinds of bread. I have chosen tea instead of coffee (I rarely drank coffee until about a year ago and now I drink it everyday and I want to stop that as it does not have a good effect on me) which comes with an assortiment of good quality teabags. At €15:00 this is really not a bad deal. In fact, only Peukie's and Copacabana's breakfasts were in the same league, so this is definitely in the top 3.
Rihanna Gaga is so active, that I constantly have to watch whether she is not pulling some stunt that will leave her falling from the couch (she remains blissfully ignorant of this as I save her from painfull drops to the floor and sometimes even gets a bit irritated if I snatch her just before she falls off the edge, stumbles backwards off the couch or keels over the back of the couch). So I put her on the floor, which looks as if you could eat off it. This was both a good and a bad idea. Good, because I can eat while she crawls to her heart delight, constantly babbling away about I don't know what - but, judging from the serious look on her face and the occasional nod she gives while talking to me, it is of utmost importance. Bad, because she is in a very explorative mood today and has crossed most of the terrace before I have finished even half of one of the plates. Stairs, edges and small puddles of water are her favourite spots and I constantly have to jump up to pick her up and put her a bit closer to me. So after a while, I let her sit on the couch next to me again and share the strawberries and some bread with her. It goes down well. We are the only ones at Strandclub Doen! this morning, which increases the serenity of the place, which is only occasionally disturbed. First, this is done by some very cheeky seagulls that plunder our table when I am gone for a moment to watch over Rihanna Gaga while she explores some stairs - she can go up and even down them nowadays. Second and more annoyingly, several jet fighters fly quite low over the beach at a certain moment.
I could sit here for hours, sipping Moët & Chandon (I've always been very receptible to advertisements, show me a beer commercial and I immediately feel like drinking beer, while I don't even like beer). In fact, that is the only mistake in an otherwise perfect breakfast at the beach: I should have ordered some bubbles with the breakfast, to enhance the feeling of decadence around here. However, we have to leave. It is almost twelve o'clock and my mother - and Rihanna Gaga's grandmother - is visiting us soon. Later that day, Rihanna Gaga will manage to stand upright without any support for the first time.
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