Netherlands - day 9 - Den Helder

Last day on Texel and last day of the trip. We said good bye to B&B Elly and went back to the ferry which will take us to Den Helder, this time cycling trough the central part od Texel.

B&B Elly

south part of Texel

camera pics were "a bit" oversaturated, but I like this one :)

When we were going to Texel, we saw a submarine in Den Helder and found out that they have a naval museum there. Today we have enough time to visit it.

claustrofobic?

After Den Helder, train took us to Utrecht and from there, a bus to Zagreb. We arrived home next morning.

Netherlands - day 8 - Texel

Initially we wanted to see some more of the northern parts in the Netherland, but after Texel we figured nothing will be so beautiful and resting so tomorrow we are going home.

Today is the "lazy" day, for visiting the surroundings by foot and boat - first we're going to visit the Eierland Lighthouse and then go to the Seal tour. The boat route starts and finishes close to De Cocksdorp.

The lighthouse was built on top of a 20-metre high sand dune, and was lit on 1 November 1864. At that time, the distance from the lighthouse to the sea was 3 kilometres. During WW2, in April 1945 the lighthouse suffered heavy damage. It was repaired by constructing a new wall around it, so from the inside you can still see the the damage made to the (now) inner wall.

the lighthouse

inside of the lighthouse

inside of the lighthouse

inside of the lighthouse

inside of the lighthouse

view from the top

for booking tours

seal tour

seals

seals

A bit more of walking...

sheep everywhere

what do you want?

chamomile

lots of shells, our B&B uses them as a decoration for the yard

a fiendly crab

lot of jellyfish today

De Cocksdorp

De Cocksdorp

sign says it all

Netherlands - day 7 - Texel

The Texel island was originally made up of two islands, Texel to the south and Eierland to the northeast, which were connected by shoals. In the seventeenth century, the islands were poldered together.

beach near De Cocksdorp

beach near De Cocksdorp

near De Cocksdorp

near De Cocksdorp

Yesterday we drove by east coast so today we are going west, to the dunes and National park Duinen van Texel. About one third of Texel is a protected nature reserve.

De Slufter, where the tide comes in and meets the dunes.

bikes at OK Coral :)

the dunes are a unique habitat for wildlife

showoff :)

scarecrow

when opening the door in b&b

One thing I almost forgot to mention - Texel also has its own brewery. It brews couple of beer types and uses local ingredients – all of their barley is grown on the island, and the water is "dune filtered". Their most rewarded beer is the Skummkoppe, but we tried another 5-6 types and liked them all.