Hoek Van Holland

We had dinner with Jan (one of Jon's friends who is also the founder of the company Jon works for now) one night last week and he invited us to come see a youth beach rugby tournament that his rugby club was hosting. So this morning we took the train to the Hoek Van Holland (Hook of Holland) to see him. The Hoek Van Holland is situated on the North Sea.

There are still lots of German bunkers there left over from the War World II. According to Jan, the Germans thought the Allied Invasion was going to take place along the Dutch border, since the beach is very flat, rather than in Normandy, France. The Dutch have found it to be too expensive to destroy them, so many of them are still standing today. There were a few other remnants from the war, there was an old observation tower and a huge radar system, that is still in use today. It is rather ironic that we were on German bunkers on the 65th anniversary of D-day!

First, we went to Jan's house and had coffee, tea, and a bite to eat. Their house is incrediblly nice with a beautiful garden in the back yard. During the war, Jan's house was a Officer's House for the German Military. Shortly after Jan moved into the house back in the early 1980's, they found a box full of German ammunition and a bunch of journals hidden in the attic. Jan still has the empty box in his garden. Jon had given Jan a Gator football several years ago, so Greyson was excited to play football in their back yard.

Then we headed to the beach along the North Sea. It was rather cold and very windy along the beach. (But yet, there were people in the water.) The beach is very wide here. We watched a couple of games of rugby, while Jan explained the rules to us. Greyson played on a slide for a bit and had fun. Jan found a rugby ball and taught Greyson how to throw a rugby ball. We played with the rugby ball for quite some time. As we were getting ready to leave, Jan bought Greyson his own rugby ball to take back to the US. Greyson has all but forgotten who Tim Tebow is at the moment and wants to be a famous rugby player instead.