The wind is howling outside.

It feels colder than I think it should be in March. However, I am looking forward to the odd 65ish degrees temperature later this week.

In honor of the brisk weather I decided to post a few more pictures of Scheveningen, from the December trip. The first was an interesting light covered “tree” that I took pictures of. It was only today that I realized there was a surfer in the picture:

Scheveningen tree of lights

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One of the things I had to do this morning was the laundry. This tends to be a bit more difficult than it should be due to having to take the laundry into town — I don’t own a washer or dryer of my own. It’s about a 15 minute walk down a somewhat annoying hill.

I am sure that I have confused people that see me strolling past with a suitcase full of clothes rolling behind. They probably would expect me to be going to the train — and most people own cars around here. I’ll admit that I never was one for driving, and moving to the Netherlands had one big non-Marco pro in its favor: not needing to learn how to drive. Though I’ll admit that I am not looking forward to the combination of trams and strollers, later on in life.

Today was a sort of dreary day with rain forecast most of the morning. The walk down wasn’t too bad, though, as not many people were up and about at 8AM. Sane people are still asleep. Generally I use the time at the laundromat to play games on my iTouch, though I doubt I’ll ever reach the level of Unblock Me that Roger has reached.

While I was waiting for the dryer to finish its cycle, two women came into the store. Since I was staring at my iTouch, the first thing I saw was their feet. And the large blue umbrella that the one was carrying. I looked up, but she shifted her gaze to the gentleman next to me, who spoke Spanish (most people at this laundromat do). They started to converse in Spanish. At first I thought they were friends until I realized she was a solicitor.

I was listening while they were talking, though not looking up from my game. She had a pamphlet she wished to give him, and she was talking about the bible. He asked if it was free, and she said yes. She only asked that if he had any questions to get in touch with him. He agreed and took the pamphlet, though perhaps he just wanted her to go away. Turns out they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. I decided not to look up, but I think they only had Spanish publications. I don’t look Spanish enough for them to bother. Fine by me!

Frankly, I was impressed that I could understand what the heck they were saying; seems my 7 years of Spanish was good for something after all. I saw a few of the pamphlets on the washers as I was folding my clothes, but I didn’t think about taking a picture of it until much later when it was too late. It was about the apocalypse and when it would happen.

So instead, here’s another picture of Scheveningen:

Scheveningen's beach

…where the warm beach sand meets the brick and concrete of the city.