Wensveen

Billie Stormzy is in an entrepreneurial mood today. When I came back from bringing his sister to school, he was already doing rounds on his kick scooter. When I told him we could go for a stroll, he said he wanted to go to the sea, so I grabbed a tea from the house and off we went. In a few days, Billie Stormzy has gotten really good at riding his kick scooter. He makes it almost all the way to the boulevard, but there's a steep bit he just can't negotiate, so he tells me to pick up his scooter and walks the rest of the bit down to the boulevard. Once we get there, for a moment he decides he wants to go back home, to "mommy", but I tell him his mother is probably already at work, so he gets on his kick scooter again and we continue, walking past a small glass house advertising "The Bible: God's Word". That one is very old - I remember it already was there when I visited Scheveningen as a child with my grandparents; amidst the stalls selling fast food, sunbathers, beach clubs and other typical beach resort things, it certainly sticks out, with its religious slogans in the windows and all kinds of leaflets and free bibles on display.

It's still early and because most kitchens will probably still be closed, we first go to the beach for a little stroll there. Billie Stormzy points at everything that he can call by its name: "cow" (a picture of a cow on a pole that helps children to locate their parents); "car" (a big tractor riding around on the beach, sifting rubbish from the sand); "bird" (seaguls everywhere); and so forth. 

After a while, Billie Stormzy tires of this and we return to the beach clubs. Wensveen seems to be in business, so we sit in one of its purple couches. Almost immediately, a cheerful waiter stops at our table and takes my order: a set breakfast of bread rolls with a cheese, eggs and bacon, a croissant, and an orange juice. The latter is brought mere seconds after having placed my order - it's nice, freshly squezed orange juice that Billie Stormzy is eager to share with me. There's salsa songs on the sound system and he sways to the music from time to time. A black bird hops by and Billie Stormzy points at it: "Bird!" he shouts. "Indeed,", I tell him, "a jackdaw". "Jackdaw," he repeats, and keeps saying it: "jackdaw, jackdaw!" 

Breakfast is brought. Three different types of breadroll, a small croissant, jam and butter, cheese and bacon and eggs on a platter, together with some salad drowned in mayonaise. It's all very nice, and, it has to be said: really good value for money at 7,50. It certainly lives up to Wensveen's slogan: "why pay more?" I've also ordered a latte macchiato, which tastes foul - the only downside to what is otherwise one of the better breakfasts at this stretch of the boulevard. Billie Stormzy samples a bit of the food. Some croissant, some egg, a few nibbles of bread. He's mostly interested, however, in the milk foam of my latte. 

He's not really running around anymore, now preferring to sit on my lap, content to just watch the people walking by. I've got a decision to take. The Netherlands is vaccinating its population against Corona by age cohort, and recently my own birthyear was reached. I have an appointment next Saturday to get my jab. There are different vaccins being used, and my cohort is getting the Janssen vaccin. At first, I was quite happy about this, since as opposed to the other vaccins available, you only need one jab. However, they've discovered a rare side-effect for this vaccin and there's a chance of one in 400.000 that you get that. I'm not particularly worried about that, but we're now given the chance to opt for another vaccin - given that the Janssen vaccin only gives around 66% protection, while other vaccins give around 95% protection, that's an appealing option, but I'm worried that it will delay my vaccination significantly. First world problems, I guess, but I still need to take that decision. 

When breakfast is done, I tell Billie Stormzy it's time to go home. He insists on taking a small plastic cup with butter with us, so I put that in his bag. We pay and leave for our bike. 

Also on Breakfast at the Beach: Jump back in time to when I visited this place with Rihanna Gaga in 2017