Texel! An island adventure!

We had an excursion to Texel this past weekend with IES! Texel is reclaimed land (used to be underwater) to the north of Amsterdam. We took multiple modes of transportation to get there: Bus, train, bus, Ferry, bus, Hostel! It was really exciting! The ferry was my favorite. I was expecting a small boat with a covered area where we would sit, but our ferry to Texel was giant with multiple floors and a café inside! It felt like a twenty minute cruise! We traveled by night and reached the Hostel despite the wet, windy weather. The “Stayokay” hostel was really nice…especially compared to the one I stayed at in Utrecht! This one had key card access into the rooms, a whole cafeteria, and a bar/lounging area: very cozy! However, we ventured back out into the night to see that small town and find some snacks. We went to a traditional eet (eat) café that serves all kinds of fried snacks, and then socialized in the hostel lounge area when we got back.

Saturday we got up early for breakfast before heading into town for some shopping. Breakfast consists mostly of assorted breads with assorted toppings-from honey or jelly to ham and cheese. My favorite though is Hagelslag! You butter a piece of bread and then cover it with delicious chocolate sprinkles! Mmmmm!

The town was very happy! It wasn’t really touristy but there were still a lot of people out and about. We went into the bread shop, the cheese shop, the wool shop, and two candy shops but we also went into Hema, which is an everything store. I bought a Jip en Janneke book at Hema. It is a collection of short stories about best friends that have lots of adventures together and het is heel leuk! (it is really cute)

In the afternoon we went out to sea on a shrimping expedition! Several people from our group get motion sickness so they took Dramamine before we “set sail” but I found the rocking quite fun! It was really windy and cold but it was too much fun not to enjoy.  When they pulled up the shrimping net, I was a little surprised to see the small catch, but I guess that is they way it goes. Everyone on board (and there were a lot of people) gathered around the catch while the “Shrimp Man” told us about it. He showed us several different fish that typically get caught in the shrimping process and made lots of jokes. He spoke in Dutch mostly but translated a little into English. At one point he told everyone (in Dutch) about this Sea Scorpion that you can’t eat because of its poison barbs, but then he told us in English that we should eat it!  Very humorous! They had a separator machine on board that took out everything that wasn’t shrimp and threw it back in the ocean. The seagulls followed the boat the whole way hoping to catch some of these stray fish. The shrimp, however, went straight to boiling water so that everyone could eat some. After shrimping we were ready to warm up and IES had a delicious evening meal planned for us. We went to the Schouten Huys and had a three hour long meal: Appetizer, dinner, dessert, and coffee after. I got a wonderful salad with ham as the base and cubed cheese for my appetizer and oven roasted goat cheese with assorted nuts drizzled with a honey sauce for dinner! For dessert we had a sampler plate with a brownie, a scoop of apple pie flavored ice cream, a small cup of frozen sangria, and whip cream with a Dutch cookie. And then I finished off with a cup of hot chocolate and a Texel shaped cookie! Amazing!

Sunday was a little drearier! It poured all day and was very windy. We went to the Seal care center and saw them feed the seals! The seals made a really funny sound like they had been smoking for a long time. One of the seals was blind and slapped his fin on the water to ask for fish. When there were no more fish, the lady dumped the bucket of water on his head so that he would know! After that we traveled back to Amsterdam where it was also rainy. That night was the perfect night to curl up with a book! And that’s just what I did! I joined Jip and Janneke on there adventures!

Comments

[Kelsey L.]

You fit in so well there and you're having so much fun...I hope you decide to come back to us at some point!! Be safe!

[Amy Lancaster]

love the pics!