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Trip to the Netherlands (long... and lots of pictures)
Zot
Posts: 825 ✭✭✭
Hello 
This weekend I was feeling a bit restless in Finland (that's been getting colder by the day) and did a trip to the Netherlands.
The journey went via Amsterdam to the Hague and the coast town (North Sea) of Scheveningen. (As a curiosity, the pronunciation of "Scheveningen" is a handful.. impossible to get right unless you're born Dutch I'd say. In fact, during WW2 the Dutch resistance had people speak this particular word in order to reveal German spies (who could speak Dutch, but this word gave them away))
Anyway, I took my MD with me and planned to do a hunt along the beach/dunes of Scheveningen on Saturday.
OK, here goes! (I've included quite a bunch of pictures encouraged by kind words of LM on them)
Friday
This is the "detecting dreamland" I left behind..
After a short train ride from Amsterdam airport, I arrived at Hague central station Friday night. The bicycle is a hugely popular means of transportation here, and this is only one of several clusters of bikes around the central station. No need for a car here; the distances are short and the country is flat. Almost everywhere they have excellent roads for bicycles that run next to streets for cars.
Saturday
Early Saturday morning I was off to Scheveningen on the North Sea coast. The weather forecast was right, it was cold and extremely windy. The wind wasn't too bad further from the coast though. Here I'm already inside the town, only a few hundred meters from the coast.
Shortly before I had the coast in sight the wind hit me... and almost stopped me in my tracks! Off the top of my head I can't remember having been out in such strong wind before.. it was a real effort to make any headway whatsoever with the wind blowing against me. As I had also dressed in 100% windproof clothing the wind sometimes grabbed hold of me and pushed me a step or two backwards!
Finally at the coast, and in the middle of a hailstorm...
The picture gives no idea of the wind, but it is strong.. had to keep my back against the wind all the time as the sand was blowing around like crazy..
Here's another shot of the coast a few minutes later (you can see it's already getting lighter). You can see some foam flying along the beach..
A slightly calmer moment with the sun rising. I was worried that the locks on the plastic bags for protecting the detector wouldn't hold in the wind, but they held surprisingly well
The sea had eaten fascinating formations into the sand. These are between three and four feet high! Note the layers of seashells
I had high hopes of finding stuff in front of major buildings like this one
The patterns in the foreground is sand blowing in the wind
The power of the ocean... the picture doesn't give an idea of the height of the waves.. but they were hitting way up on the lighthouses you can see in the background
The pier at Scheveningen
Finds?
Hmm... I must say that I found it unthinkable beforehand that after over four hours of pounding this place I would come up with:
Nothing but a few Euro coins!!
I don't even count Euros as "finds" so the result was actually "zero"! I had to grab a few seashells and beef up the picture with them to make it look like I found more
On my way back from Scheveningen, I passed a park that looked like this in numerous places:
Given its condition, I didn't hesitate much in pulling out my detector.
However, I quickly saw that this wouldn't be easy either. Reason: Dogs.
Dogs run free in parks here, and there are lots of dogs, and of course they wanted a piece of the action..
Sometimes I was forewarned by an enthusiastic "woof woof!" before I got company, but some cunning ones launched stealth attacks and the first I knew was a nose and/or paws in my hole.. (or on me)
The park was quite target-poor, and most signals were obvious surface trash, but quite early on I got a good signal a few inches deep.
Ha! Finally a Dutch (pre-Euro) coin (5 cent 1978. Mintage 60 million, $0.10 in Unc ). Now that I'd broken my duck, I had high hopes... But unfortunately this was all I got 
I mentioned the good cycling infrastructure earlier.. Here's an example: The road to the left is for walking, middle one for bicycles and right hand one for cars.
Sunday
Oh boy... the hotel cleaning staff won't be happy... there's sand here and there, including in my ears which I didn't notice until now...
No detecting, but here's a few snaps from the Hague where I spent most of the day..
Zot scraping the bottom of the barrel for the mandatory critter picture..
Here's a wider shot from a different direction. Note that the bird is still in position..
When you see buildings like this, you'd like to tear up the street... there are treasures under there for sure..
Same building. This looks like a bunch of detectorists having just found their 10th pulltab in a row!
Thanks for looking. Happy hunting and Merry Christmas!!
-Z
This weekend I was feeling a bit restless in Finland (that's been getting colder by the day) and did a trip to the Netherlands.
The journey went via Amsterdam to the Hague and the coast town (North Sea) of Scheveningen. (As a curiosity, the pronunciation of "Scheveningen" is a handful.. impossible to get right unless you're born Dutch I'd say. In fact, during WW2 the Dutch resistance had people speak this particular word in order to reveal German spies (who could speak Dutch, but this word gave them away))
Anyway, I took my MD with me and planned to do a hunt along the beach/dunes of Scheveningen on Saturday.
OK, here goes! (I've included quite a bunch of pictures encouraged by kind words of LM on them)
Friday
This is the "detecting dreamland" I left behind..
After a short train ride from Amsterdam airport, I arrived at Hague central station Friday night. The bicycle is a hugely popular means of transportation here, and this is only one of several clusters of bikes around the central station. No need for a car here; the distances are short and the country is flat. Almost everywhere they have excellent roads for bicycles that run next to streets for cars.
Saturday
Early Saturday morning I was off to Scheveningen on the North Sea coast. The weather forecast was right, it was cold and extremely windy. The wind wasn't too bad further from the coast though. Here I'm already inside the town, only a few hundred meters from the coast.
Shortly before I had the coast in sight the wind hit me... and almost stopped me in my tracks! Off the top of my head I can't remember having been out in such strong wind before.. it was a real effort to make any headway whatsoever with the wind blowing against me. As I had also dressed in 100% windproof clothing the wind sometimes grabbed hold of me and pushed me a step or two backwards!
Finally at the coast, and in the middle of a hailstorm...
The picture gives no idea of the wind, but it is strong.. had to keep my back against the wind all the time as the sand was blowing around like crazy..
Here's another shot of the coast a few minutes later (you can see it's already getting lighter). You can see some foam flying along the beach..
A slightly calmer moment with the sun rising. I was worried that the locks on the plastic bags for protecting the detector wouldn't hold in the wind, but they held surprisingly well
The sea had eaten fascinating formations into the sand. These are between three and four feet high! Note the layers of seashells
I had high hopes of finding stuff in front of major buildings like this one
The patterns in the foreground is sand blowing in the wind
The power of the ocean... the picture doesn't give an idea of the height of the waves.. but they were hitting way up on the lighthouses you can see in the background
The pier at Scheveningen
Finds?
Hmm... I must say that I found it unthinkable beforehand that after over four hours of pounding this place I would come up with:
Nothing but a few Euro coins!!
I don't even count Euros as "finds" so the result was actually "zero"! I had to grab a few seashells and beef up the picture with them to make it look like I found more
On my way back from Scheveningen, I passed a park that looked like this in numerous places:
Given its condition, I didn't hesitate much in pulling out my detector.
However, I quickly saw that this wouldn't be easy either. Reason: Dogs.
Dogs run free in parks here, and there are lots of dogs, and of course they wanted a piece of the action..
Sometimes I was forewarned by an enthusiastic "woof woof!" before I got company, but some cunning ones launched stealth attacks and the first I knew was a nose and/or paws in my hole.. (or on me)
The park was quite target-poor, and most signals were obvious surface trash, but quite early on I got a good signal a few inches deep.
Ha! Finally a Dutch (pre-Euro) coin (5 cent 1978. Mintage 60 million, $0.10 in Unc
). Now that I'd broken my duck, I had high hopes... But unfortunately this was all I got I mentioned the good cycling infrastructure earlier.. Here's an example: The road to the left is for walking, middle one for bicycles and right hand one for cars.
Sunday
Oh boy... the hotel cleaning staff won't be happy... there's sand here and there, including in my ears which I didn't notice until now...
No detecting, but here's a few snaps from the Hague where I spent most of the day..
Zot scraping the bottom of the barrel for the mandatory critter picture..
Here's a wider shot from a different direction. Note that the bird is still in position..
When you see buildings like this, you'd like to tear up the street... there are treasures under there for sure..
Same building. This looks like a bunch of detectorists having just found their 10th pulltab in a row!
Thanks for looking. Happy hunting and Merry Christmas!!
-Z
Minelab: GPX 5000, Excalibur II, Explorer SE. White's: MXT, PI Pro
0
Comments
Jerry
sorry you didnt find more with the detector.
Jeff
or should I say I ACCUMULATE!
I also dabble with the darkside
Ive recently gotten more into currency, especially modern star notes
Every time I read one of your threads, it makes me want to pack up my ‘tector and a few clothes and strike of for places I’ve never been before.
I admire the bicycle infrastructure over there. Before I became such a hog, I used to ride my bike 15 miles everyday, Monday through Friday, and 30 miles a day on Saturday and Sunday. I miss it, but I probably couldn’t propel myself a single mile, now. The one thing that stuck in my craw, when I was riding every day, was the absence of places that were designed for bicycles; nearly none.
Great story, Zot. Thanks a lot.
I always enjoy your posts and quite frankly,this one is one of the best
Al
<< <i>Zot,
Every time I read one of your threads, it makes me want to pack up my ‘tector and a few clothes and strike of for places I’ve never been before. >>
Me, too... even if the rewards are but a few measly Euros and some seashells.
The seagull-poop adorned statue is great- there's a good caption to be written, there, but my creativity fails me at the moment.
Boy, some of those beach and surf shots looked raw and cold- I sure wouldn't have wanted to be out on the water then!
Thanks for the great update. Keep 'em beepin'!
The pics are great, I wish I was in your part of the world. Detecting and sightseeing all in one. What a blast!
Keep up the great work!!
John
Another great post Zot