Beach Resort Makkum

The site is a delight, with a wide range of birds everywhere and rabbits hopping around unconcernedly (dogs have to be on leads). Lots of trees, bushes and turf with buttercups and daisies. Walking around the site and crossing the little bridges is pleasant, with water everywhere. The houses are in a range of styles, many with thatched roofs. There are two easily accessible beaches - fine sand, many small shells, some wooden picnic tables. The shallow water of the Ijselmeer is ideal for children as well as windsurfers etc. There was quite a strong wind when we were there. From Google Earth it looks as though the nature reserve is accessible along a dike but it’s currently overgrown and impassable. Information could have been better. There was no explanatory booklet in our Schakel bungalow and it’s not apparent from the website that the shop is only open Monday, Friday and Saturday. (I had to ask in the gym to find this out - reception is closed all week too.) Would also have liked to have known the hot water timing: my 6.15 shower was cold! The bungalow was comfortable and spacious with modern appliances but rather eccentrically furnished with a lack of places to put things e.g. we had to clear away some of the large wooden ornaments to have a place for the breadbin. The style is unfinished wood everywhere and a clever wood-effect floor. However, my bedroom had no hooks, no chair or stool, no bedside table - I had to use an upended suitcase. One drawer, a wardrobe with a rail and coathangers. Bafflingly the kitchen had zillions of small side plates but no cereal or soup bowls. Toaster but no microwave. The Bosch induction hob worked OK but the oven defeated me with its range of incomprehensible symbols - the instruction manual didn’t include English. The stairs are steep and narrow. Being old, I went down backwards using the handrail, like a stepladder. There are a lot of midge-type insects (hence the birds) - bead screens on the patio doors and wire screens on the windows keep them out of the house. I never got bitten. For those interested in birds, I saw sand martins (lots), sparrows, wagtails, tits, a jay, goldfinches on the groundsel, magpies, jackdaws, blackbirds, wood pigeons, collared doves, heard a cuckoo, oystercatchers, blackheaded gulls, coots, a kingfisher, swans, a range of ducks, Canada geese (too many), other geese, grebes, a heron.