Noordzeefest

We were in the not so sunny Netherlands for a couple of days to end the Easter school holiday week. A chance to have a beer or two and hang out with my 3 girls, we stayed at Hotel Noordzee in Cadzand Bad which is just over the Belgian border, not that you'd know as there is no indication of Belgium

ending and NL starting .

No exercise other than a few big walks with the dog and a 15 minute swim the the North Sea....A chance to try getting into an out of my wet suit and of course to see what its like to swim in. First thing is that its as tight as a Dutchman's wallet so not easy to get into or out of.

On the positive side it adds massively to your bouyancy and of course I'm in the sea so the salt water helps. You could just lie back and even when fully exhaled you didn't sink. The air temp was about 14C and I think the water temp was around 5-8C so pretty cold. However apart from my hands, feet and face you would not really know. I swam out a fair bit but the salt water was murder in my mouth and the big waves/rollers were difficult to swim against plus the tide was going out. So I was a wee bit worried about getting too far out :O)

Coming back in against the tide was much harder than going out but it wasn't particularly difficult or worrying. I just had to keep checking I was heading roughly back into the shore and of course it took longer.