Camping on Texel

We were privileged to be invited to join Jaap, a colleague of Bronwen, and his wife Marianne for a weekend of camping on the West Frisian Island of Texel! Bron has been to Texel once before, for a lab group outing last year, but Justin hadn't been there yet. Bron is not a huge fan of camping but during the group trip last year she saw that Jaap and Marianne camp in style and so was happy to join them for a weekend =)

Texel, pronounced Tessel, is the first of the Dutch Frisian islands. The island is about 60km in circumference and has various farming activities including sheep, maize, and dairy cattle. There is a lot of open space and fields on the island. Also significant, the West coast of the island is on the North Sea with sandy beaches and the East Coast on the Waddenzee which is muddy. At low tide you can walk on the mudflats of the Waddenzee and explore it's rich diversity and also see boats stranded by the tide.

On Friday night we headed to Texel. Two trains, a bus ride, a ferry trip and three and a half hours later we were on the island! After seeing our tent and home for the next two nights and a quick hot drink, we cycled to the beach to catch the sunset. It had been raining most of the day and was due to rain again in the night so there were too many clouds for a red sunset but it was still really nice.

Bron in front of our cozy tent

We were really lucky with the weather on Saturday. Considering we were listening to the rain on the roof of our tent in the morning, the day turned out rather sunny. It remained breezy but it cleared up and got quite warm at some points. After a short lie in on Saturday morning, we got on our bicycles for a cycle tour of the island! First stop was the biggest town on the island, Den Burg, for browsing the town and a cup of coffee at the best cafe on Texel. We cycled on to an airfield to watch skydivers with their colourful parachutes come in and land on the air strip. The cycle tour continued past fields dotted with sheep, cows or horses, or growing high with corn, to De Slufter. De Slufter is a naturally occurring lagoon offering protected swimming, walking and awesome views. We spent some time enjoying the views and walking down to the dunes and shore break. The cycling continued down to the town of De Koog and on back to the tent.

A street in Den Burg

A plane at the airstrip

Skydivers 

Bron and Jaap cycling! 

A map of Texel

Justin, Marianne, Bronwen and Jaap overlooking De Slufter

At De Slufter

Sea shells

Getting a lift over the stream

A real Frisian cart horse! 

In De Koog

After some chill time and a drink at the tent, we took a gentle amble through some forest and flowering fields to a restuarant on the beach where we had a lovely dinner. Walking back it was sunset and a nice way to enjoy the end of the day.

Trying out the local brew

Walking through fields of colour...

....and forests. 

And then onto the dunes

Houses on the beach

One of the highlights of our stay was some competitive games of Scrabble! We played three games; one in English and two in Dutch. Thank goodness Jaap and Marianne helped us a lot and had a very comprehensive Dutch Scrabble word book otherwise we would not have managed! Justin even scored 99 in one round with a Dutch word using all seven of his letters which earned him an extra 50 points! Needless to say he won that game. We are now totally hooked on Scrabble!

Sunday started out rainy again but that didn't stop us from enjoying a morning of exploring before heading back to the ferry crossing and back to Rotterdam by train. But first Jaap and Marianne showed us a little bit of the Western part of the island and the town of Oudeschild with it's picturesque harbour and old buildings.

An inquisitive Texel sheep! 

Quaint Oudeschild houses

Boats at Oudeschild Harbour 

Thank you Jaap and Marianne for your hospitality and inviting us to join you on your holiday! We had a really wonderful time. Thank you for showing us so much of the beautiful island of Texel and for looking after us so well! Thank you for showing Bron how fun and comfortable camping can be; she even managed the 6min time limit on the showers! And for getting us hooked on Scrabble! Enjoy the rest of your holiday and having your children join you this weekend!


PS: Thank you for 10 000 + page views!!! =)