Ahhh, Texel

Birds lift in the heathery dunes on Texel

The train trip from Amsterdam to the port city of Den Helder is a speedy one, through little towns and fields that boast tulips in the spring and cattle or other crops in summer. Usually there’s a bus to take us the short distance to the ferry, but Covid changed that schedule. We shared a taxi with another couple to the ferry. It’s a very well organized operation for a ferry that can carry 350 cars, bicycles, and passengers. The only boat crew we see are directing cars and trucks to load, and the captain who walks the deck to the wheelhouse on the other end of the top deck. The boat doesn’t turn around- it just heads out silently once everyone is on. On the 4th deck, there’s a cafeteria style restaurant , and many people have a snack or share a bottle of wine on the 20 min trip to the island.

Texel is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. It has 7 villages and a bunch of other small townships. One third of the island is protected nature preserve. Will and I both love it there, even when the weather isn’t great. This year, we came prepared for rain and damp with rain gear, hats, and a couple of Smart wool tops each. The only time we had to put on more than one layer was in the evenings, biking ‘home’ as the sun started to set about 9:30! The weather was remarkable: sunny, warm and dry all week. The farmers were out haying in their fields still when we would bike by at 9pm.

The whole week we are on Texel, we travel on our rented ebikes everywhere we go. The extra power comes in really handy with the wind that can get up to 15-20 mph. A lot of times, we don’t need the power because it’s flat; the bike lanes are incredible and go everywhere. The bikes have roomy saddle bags that carry groceries and everything we need for the day.

Dahlias from the cut your own field tucked in the saddlebag

We spent several late afternoons on the beach, arriving at 4;30 or 5 and staying til 7 or so. The sun stays so high, it was still warm enough to worry about sunburn. The ocean was beautiful.

Our little shade tent-helps with blowing sand too

We were wishing for one of those little beach sheds people rent

Will convinced me to try the naturalist beach, meaning we walked past this yellow sign and found a spot to take off our clothes! No one really looks at you and people sit far apart— but I could see that many people had NO tan lines. I have to say it was pretty great, except the sunscreen application took a long time.

The heather in the dunes glows as we rode back from the beach.

With the sun setting so late, our days felt like double days- sort of like when we went to Iceland. One day, we biked north and along the eastern dike where many water birds hang out.

In the strong headwinds, riding the dike is an adventure

Biking north took us through many different landscapes, all wide vistas with the flatness of the island.

These are the grey geese that noisily fly from field to field, and then to ponds at night

These 3 seemed to know it was time to head somewhere

This artichoke stand sold out just as we rode up, so we walked to the field to inspect.

Another day, we biked a different route in the north. At one stop, we climbed the steps to look out. Since it was midday, there were few birds feeding in the closer shore area.