A Visit to Texel

(posted by John)



Last Sunday, March 27th, Jen, the kids, Bella and I traveled to the northern section of The Netherlands to visit the island of Texel (pronounced tessel).  Texel is the first island in a chain of islands that extends from Holland northward http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texel. 

On the ferry to Texel, still a bit chilly!



We drove north from our home in Amstelveen for about one hour and twenty minutes until we reached the town of Den Halder which is at the northern tip of the mainland.  Once here, we parked our car and took a twenty minute ferry ride across the sea to Texel.  So now how do we move around Texel?  Of course since we are in The Netherlands, we rent bikes! 



Biking to the beach



We optimistically had hoped to bike around the island, but Texel is MUCH too big for my crew, so instead we biked to the beach (aren't you surprised Jen wanted to go to the beach?)  The ride from the ferry port to the beach area took about an hour and a half.  A fairly liesurly ride, except for Bella.  She received quite a workout!



The landscape is beautiful.  Imagine small farm houses with orange tiled roofs, lots of sheep, and flower fields everywhere.  Yes, the are flower farmers!  I guess I never though about who grows flowers, but yes indeed, there are flower farmers.  We were a bit early to truly appreciate the beauty, that will occur about a month from now, but already a few fields were springing up yellow and purple.  I express my amazement to my Dutch colleagues, and they shake their head.  Flower farms are quite normal to them.  Maybe you have to grow up around corn and bean fields your whole life to be amazed...

Flower field

 

The bike ride was great.  Jen and Matthew shared a tandem bike and Matthew did an outstanding job.  Allie and Ryan were on adult sized bikes and did a fantastic job as well.  In addition to the farm landscape, there was a forest and of course the beach. 

We hung out at the beach for about 90 minutes, had lunch and ran Bella around on the beach and in the sea.  we also basked in the sun and enjoyed the beautiful day.

Any day on the beach is a good day

The bike ride back to the ferry went just as well as the ride out, but we had to slow down a bit for Bella.  25 kilometers running next to a bike wore her out!  Once we returned out bikes, we bought some ice cream while we waitied for the ferry.  Another ferry ride back to shore, back in the car and back home.  Another great European adventure!

Beach Bums

We hope you are all doing well!

John