The Netherlands, day 4: The North Sea

On day 4, I visited the coast of the North Sea, in a small town called Bergen aan Zee, with my native Dutch friend. It was a beautiful little costal town that looked typically European, but, resembled the coast of Oregon in the USA as well.

Lunch, for me, consisted of salmon on a ciabatta-like bread with a lemon juice and ricotta cheese mixture with a side salad. Now – I love salmon! I love it so much in fact, I could eat it for every dinner. But, you can imagine my surprise when the waitress brought a sandwhich that consisted of the above mentioned items – minus a cooked slab of fish. It was raw! Now, I truly didn’t mind this because I have had raw salmon in the form of sushi before, so I dug on in. I was expecting it to taste like the fish department of any given grocery store smells, however, it was rather tasty. I will attribute this to the copious amounts of lemon and the generous helping of spices rubbed on the fish.

When we went to pay, I saw a sign that made me crack up. I realized the name of the restaurant, Sissy-Boy Noord, and couldn’t help myself.  Now, to an English speaker, this name is hilarious. I couldn’t imagine a restaurant being called ’sissy-boy’, as that is one of the biggest insults that a man can receive – at least here in the USA. Example: “You’re such a sissy boy, you play ball like a girl!” (No offense to girls, this is strictly used for an example).  I was so tickled by the name, the cashier gave me a big brochure with the logo on it.

We decided to go for a walk into the town, though it truly wasn’t a long walk. But, it was good to get some exercise to work off lunch and to stay warm, since it was pretty much freezing by my standards. We walked past some houses that faced the beach and I longed to be a billionaire so that I might have a home in such a place. I almost lost the Sissy-Boy brochure due to a wind gust…and that would’ve been a real tragedy. But, I chased it down and a crisis was averted.

Walking back to the car, my friend and I saw this cute, old Citroen car parked behind us. Of course, the photographer in me could not resist the urge to snap a photo. Afterall, when was the last time you saw one of these cars randomly driving around the USA? I can’t say that’s ever happened to me. I think whomever owns this car is a lucky person to have such a piece of history. While, yes, it is only a car…it’s a pretty cool looking car that reminds of driving through the South of France on a sunny, Sunday afternoon with a scarf around my hair and a basket of flowers on the seat next to me. No, I have never done so – but, one day I hope to.