When Brits want to experience the feeling of holidaying abroad, but without the hassle and cost of traveling a long distance, they can head to the Isle of Wight. When the Dutch want the same, they go to Texel, the largest and southernmost of the Frisian Islands (also known as the Wadden Islands), which lie like beads on a sandy necklace at the northern tip of the Netherlands, Germany and Western Denmark. . Texel (pronounced “Tessell”) is only about three miles from the Dutch mainland, but it feels like another world. Motor vehicle traffic is limited, beaches are often deserted, and the situation in many of the island’s villages still feels a bit like the 1950s.
I get to Texel the way almost everyone does: by taking my bike on one of the ferries that leave regularly from Den Helder, just over an hour by train from Amsterdam. Although Texel is only five miles wide and 15 miles long, it has nearly 100 miles of bike paths, making it a haven for cyclists.
After leaving the ferry, I pedal north to the beautiful town of Den Hoorn, then west towards the coast. The landscape I pass through is idyllic and idyllic; The pointed red-tile roofs of old farm buildings emerge from the green fields like pyramids in the desert. I pass a man in blue overalls tending a small flock of sheep. The green, gently rolling, salt-coloured landscape looks more like Scandinavia than the Netherlands.
When I plotted my route on my phone, my maps app warned me that my proposed drive contained “very steep hills”; This is not something I am used to encountering in this part of the world. But as I continue cycling west, tall grass-covered dunes rise around me and the bike path slopes sharply upward. While in Britain these dunes are barely recognizable as hills, for the Netherlands they are the Himalaya. When I reach the top, I feel pretty proud of myself until I check my phone and see the height I’ve triumphantly climbed: four meters above sea level.
When I go down to the beach, I reach a magnificent white sandy beach that stretches in a wide strip in both directions. It’s an idyllic place, and there’s barely anyone here except a few dog walkers and a guy waving a metal detector. There is a restaurant among the dunes; Strandpaviljoen Paal 9 (paal9.nl) with the catchy name. I sit on the terrace and enjoy a delicious local cheese plate accompanied by a large glass of Skuumkoppe, the honey-coloured local beer.
Once the beer and cheese is finished, I bike north. When I leave the dunes, the landscape changes again and I find myself in dense pine forests and a swamp area that almost resembles a stream. In the summer this area will be full of Dutch and German tourists, but in the off-season I bike 30 minutes before I see any other people: an elderly couple on tandem pulling an old but happy collie on a bike trailer.
As I approached the center of Texel, my attention was drawn to a huge, red-striped buoy sitting incongruously in a field, as if it had been swept away by a tsunami. This marks the entrance to the Juttersmuseum or Beachcombers Museum (juttersflora.nl); It’s a wonderfully strange place, displaying treasures that have washed up on Texel beaches, including everything from letters in bottles to crashed helicopter parts, security badges from crashed planes, and a security pass. life-size cutout of a character Star wars.
In the evening, I set out towards Den Burg, which is considered the biggest city of this region. With its beautiful red brick church, bars and restaurants, it is a pleasant place to spend the evening. My hotel, Koogerend (hotelkoogerend.nl), is not a fancy hotel but offers outstanding value for money, and the nearby Smulpot restaurant (smulpot.nl) serves excellent seafood.
The next morning I get back on my bike and ride further north, past fields full of bright yellow daffodils. I see muscular rabbits running like racehorses through the grass, and great gray herons fly so low above my head I could almost touch them. After about an hour, the road ends and I pass through a gap between the dunes and emerge on another magnificent beach. A bright red lighthouse stands at one end. It is known as the place where a group of Georgian soldiers rose up against the occupying Nazis in the spring of 1945, fighting bravely to liberate Texel before their rebellion was brutally suppressed. Their last stand was one of the last battles of the Second World War in Europe, and many of them are still buried in Texel.
My time on the island is almost over and I’m speeding along the east coast towards the ferry terminal. In the port town of Oudeschild, seal-spotting tours are advertised and a man in waterproof clothing shares a long hug with a crying woman before boarding the trawler. I stop for lunch kibbeling (fish nuggets) and dash into the excellent Kaap Skil museum (kaapskil.nl), where the prize exhibit is a 400-year-old silk dress miraculously recovered from the seabed by divers. Other than a few stains, it looks like someone could wear it to a party tomorrow.
As the light begins to fade, I pedal quickly and make it back to the ferry in time for the journey back to the mainland. As I watch Texel walk away from the ass, I promise myself I’ll be back again soon. It may not be Osborne House or Cowes Week here, but I could go for the wide skies and empty beaches of Texel any day.
Texel basics
The ferry from Den Helder costs €2.50 (£2.15) for foot passengers and €5 (£4.30) for cyclists and takes around 20 minutes (see teso.nl/en). You can rent a bike at the ferry terminal for €12.50 (£10.70) per day (fietsverhuurtexel.nl/en). Rooms at Koogerend start from around €50 (£43) including breakfast. Britons can reach Den Helder from London in five and a half hours by changing trains in Amsterdam; Round-trip fares around £120 (see eurostar.com). You can find details of tourist attractions on the island at texel.net/en.