Our Saturday was spent in familiar terrain today, the product of good weather and the amount of time passed since our last visit. This time we brought along a friend to enjoy the sights with and to make the tedium of travel less so.

Despite leaving later than scheduled, we lucked out and were just in the nick of time – exactly 2 minutes to be exact – for the ferry departure from Den Helder, helped no doubt by Teko’s online ticket purchase the night before and the impressive boarding system that apparently could read our car’s license plate, and which let us in with no hassle whatsoever. Convenient perks of living in a developed country. The beautiful day that it was, we took our time with everything – from enjoying the relaxed ride on the ferry, our walk around the lively market streets of the capital, Den Burg, the bright and easygoing lunch we had in De Lindeboom’s open-air terrace, up until our walk around the wide beaches and dunes of the Vuurtoren. It was a beautiful day today and life was good.