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We had our, now traditional, week of vacation on Texel. As always on the same spot, but our experience was a bit different because this time we had brought our bikes with us — and the cycling is good on Texel.

Last year we got stuck in a huge traffic jam to get to the island, because one of the ferries was taken out of rotation, so we made sure to get to Den Helder on time. We did get in a long line of slow traffic, which made us fear the worst, but it turned out that there was a traffic accident and once we were past that, we could basically just roll onto the ferry.

We checked in, and got some chocolates to go with our tea! Texel is known for its sheep, and while you can find a lot of wool products on the island, Texel sheep are kept for their meat — their wool is not fit to spin into yarn, so any yarn on the island is “imported”!

We had never really explored the east side of the island. We’ve been there, but with a car your options to walk around are limited. So for the first day, I plotted a bicycle route across the island from De Koog (where we were staying), through the oldest bird sanctuary on the island (only accessible on foot or bicycle!) to the east side, with a long stretch along the coast of the Wadden Sea. It is a beautiful route, and we had a great time. We came upon the IJzeren Kaap (“Iron Cape”), a navigational beacon that wasn’t lit up but could be used during the day.

I don’t think we’ve ever visited Oostereind before, but I definitely want to go back and walk around there some time. It was very traditional and cosy. I’m sure it’s packed with tourists at the height of the season, and it was still busy enough, but it was manageable.

The National Park Dunes of Texel is really something. The sand dunes have been overgrown with tough vegetation (it has to be tough to thrive there!) and the height differences make for an interesting landscape. There’s some good hiking to be done there.

Of course, we couldn’t resist getting ice cream, especially not at the “Ice cream farm”. We took a little detour to get there — it’s mostly a large playground and a petting zoo with an ice cream shop attached to it. The ice cream was nice (though not spectacular) and the highlight of the visit were the two little peachicks that were scurrying about, supervised by their mother.

We did not get all the way to the lighthouse, but we did see it. The bicycle path took us right along the border between the dunes and the cultivated land.

Some people are confused whether “Texel” is pronounced “Tek-sel” or “Tes-sel”. This gable stone in Den Burgh sets the record straight.

Last year, a 1000 piece puzzle featuring a cartoon by Jan van Haasteren showing various locations and scenes from Texel was bought. This year it was assembled over the course of many evenings. We had to eat with our plates on our lap because the table was filled with puzzle pieces…

And of course we also visited the Slufter, a kind of tidal flats and bird sanctuary.

We had, once again, a lovely time. Bringing the bicycles with us really added to the experience, and it was great we could use the pedal assist when riding against the headwind… We got to new places because of this, and we really enjoyed that. Though it also must be said that some parts of the cycle route were closed off without any proper detours marked. That left us scrambling to find an alternative, and it detracted from the experience. I mean, I understand roads and paths need maintenance (and I certainly look forward to riding across that smooth new asphalt!) but just closing off main routes without an alternative is not good. We had instances where trying to find an alternative added several kilometers to our route. Nothing we couldn’t handle, but it detracted from the fun of the moment.

Crossposted from my blog. Comment here or at the original post.

Last year, we got quite into cycling — I guess we’re at that age where tour-cycling is considered fun and good exercise. We used our basic bicycles (mine doesn’t even have multiple gears!) but we managed to go 30km in a single day. We also considered the possibility of getting e-bikes so we could range further, but we thought we could just rent ’em if there was a part of the country we’d like to explore on bicycle.

But then in June, when we were on vacation in Denmark, we got infected with COVID-19 and that was basically the end of it.

This year, as the weather got better, our thoughts turned to cycling once again. But going 30km seemed like a large hurdle — maybe an e-bike would help there after all? But e-bikes are expensive, and could we justify spending that kind of money on it? And we would need to get a special bicycle rack if we wanted to take them anywhere — ebikes are heavy and our Prius doesn’t have a trailer hitch to put a rack on…

So the idea was to get a foldable e-bike. After a thorough search, our choice was the Urbanbiker Mini, a Spanish model that is street-legal in the EU. I ordered one, it came in, we tried it out, and then I ordered a second one. It has the right kind of range, and we cared a lot about having 20″ wheels and hydraulic brakes. And the price was really good as well.

We can chuck these in the car and just go somewhere. In fact, with a bit of wriggling we can put them on the backseat, leaving the trunk for other luggage. So we can (and have!) take them on holiday.

With the normal road bikes, we have to start and finish at home, limiting our range — and we’ve seen most of the nice paths and routes near home already. It’s kinda dull to have to go through a part of the route that you have done 20+ times already before you get to somewhere new. Last Sunday, we put the bicycles in the car, drove 12km and did a tour of 30km from there — it’s expanded our range tremendously.

We usually ride with only minimal support, just to overcome the size difference of the tires with a normal bike. We don’t have to zoom around at 20km/h! And this also means that we do some actual cycling, not just perfunctory rotating the pedals to activate the motor.