Day 39 - Texel

Saturday 11^th July 2015 – Texel – Day 39

This morning it is bright sunny and very warm.

Today is an adventure as we hired bicycles from the nearby marina shop for 9.5 euros (£8) for the day.  The usual Dutch sit up and beg model but with seven gears, although most of the island is flat, they did come in handy.

Oudeschild Church

On the way out of Oudeschild following the dyke, we came across this lovely church, the cycle path led us past the low lying fields and their irrigation channels, until we came to the island’s main road. 

This connects the capital Den Burg and the ferry terminal at t’Horntje.  There is no problem cycling,as there are well defined paths for cyclists which are respected by the motorists.

After a mile down the main road, we turned right and headed off for the village of Den Hoorn.

Jack's Bic

Here we stopped at a very busy café and enjoyed an iced tea, with lots of other cyclists, so we were on the correct tourist route.  This fine example of the village church built in 1646, the church steeples are the highest points on the island, therefore fine reference points.

De Dennen Forest

Although coming out of the village, we managed to miss the correct path and ended up passing through the De Dennen forest, this was very pretty with a suitable path which eventually led us to the west coast of the island, over the sand dunes before reaching De Koog.

   

Here the area was very busy with many camp sites hidden away in the dunes, the white sandy beach was packed, as we watched from a café, while having a ham and eggs lunch.

There are many bars and restaurants overlooking the beach, we later found out the big influx of people was because of a beach party staring at 18.00 and finishing at 04.00 (dawn).

De Koog 

Town Square

Moving off the dunes into the village, it was a thriving, one street was just more bars, restaurants and shops.  It became very clear this was the main tourist spot on the island; we sat in the square watching the people going by, enjoying this beautiful summer’s day.

Time to move on, the main road taking us to the capital at Den Burg.

Jack at Rest

Alex's Bic

In the centre of this wonderful town we found a small park just off the main square with convenient empty benches. In the shade of the trees a nice resting place after all of this exercise on the bics.

A refreshing ice tea and ice creams in the square before heading back on the road for the journey to Oudeschild.

Passing the pretty villages on the way surrounded by the well cultivated fields, it was a joy to be out exploring this beautiful island.  We handed back the bicycles at 18.00 after covering a distance of twenty miles.

Jack headed back to the boat, while I went off to the harbour restaurant of ‘De Kombuis’, here I had a wonderful meal of pork satay with a local beer, before  returning to the boat and in bed for 22.00.

It had been a grand day out, something different, a cycle tour and well worth the effort.