Today was spent exploring Texel for half the day, before starting our drive south to the town of Almaar. Alkmaar has a famous cheese market that runs on Tuesday evenings in the summer, so we had planned some of our trip around this one stop to check it out.
It was our last day on Texel Island, and we woke to a much nicer day than the day before. While there were some big grey clouds hanging about, the sky was blue and it looked like it would be a nice day. We had decided to get up fairly early, so that we could get as much into the day as possible. We were spending part of the day on Texel, taking the ferry back to the mainland, and then heading down Alkmaar to hopefully see the cheese market. We once again had breakfast in the hotel and we’re packed up and ready to go by about 9 o’clock.
We had a lot that we wanted to see today so we started off by driving north and parking at the second (best of the two?) restaurant we had eaten at yesterday. It was still nice and early, so the parking lot was mostly empty. It gave us an opportunity to hike in the dunes without a lot of people around. The nature reserve is called De Steutel, and there’s a huge stretch of dunes that reaches out to the ocean. The area is also a big bird nesting area was still quite nice if a bit windy as we started to walk out amongst the dunes. The area was spectacularly, beautiful, sand, wild grasses, stretching out for miles.
The was a river running through the dunes that the path generally followed, out to the sea.
We picked a path that let us relatively straight out to the beach on the other side of the dunes. along the way, we did see quite a number of birds, including some new ones for the life list. Sadly, however, most of the birds were quite far off in the distance.
The dunes and the small river running through them.
We worked our way through, along, and sometimes over the dunes, heading towards the beach.
It took us about 45 minutes to walk out through the dunes over to the ocean. And for the most part, we had this huge stretch of open beach to ourselves other than a few cormorants. Mom took off her shoes and stuck her feet in the ocean in the North Sea, and we wandered and just enjoyed the day. I had wanted to swim, but I wasn’t sure about the ocean and whether or not it was safe to do so. The waves were pretty high and I suspected there was a pretty good current ripping by. Plus, it was very cold and windy.
We walked back through the dunes, taking slightly different paths to enjoy the sunny morning and explore the area. There were some big flocks of geese flying over and a few more different birds, but again most were quite far off in the distance.
We got back to the car, noting how much busier it was than when we had arrived. I think it was good that we started so early, as we had the place to ourselves for most of the day.
Mom and Mackenzie coming back up the stairs from our hike on the dunes.
While we had spent a few hours hiking, it still left us with enough time in the day to do a few more things. We drove south and headed down to Ecomare, a small aquarium and seal rescue sanctuary that we had tried to go to yesterday. It had not worked out yesterday, as we had arrived too late, basically as they were closing. They were nice enough to accept our tickets that we had booked for yesterday and so we went in and wandered around for a while.
The entrance to the seal rescue center and aquarium.
In the outside area, there were a number of different habitats with seals that they had rescued, and we had a quick look around. They had a good variety of different types of seals as well as some sea birds that were also rescues. Some were doing rehab, but others had become more permanent residents. There was also a short one kilometre hiking trail through the dunes that we walked, enjoying the sunshine and checking out the wildlife. Heather was in bloom everywhere and the bright pink flowers made everything look amazing.
Inside, there were the usual exhibits with some interesting aquarium tanks, and lots of displays about the local flora and fauna. We spent about an hour exploring, before having had our fill and continuing our way.
After leaving the aquarium, we wanted to check out a few more things on the island before heading back to the mainland. Our first stop was about 10 minutes away at a local chocolate maker sadly, they weren’t giving out any samples, but we did pick up a few things that looked quite good. After that, we stopped by the Texels Brewery, as I had wanted to check out the place. I had had a few of their beers over the course of our couple of days in the Netherlands. It seems they are a fairly major producer, as their beer has been available all over the mainland as well as on the island.
Our last stop at the Texels Brewery.
They had a nice little set up outside, with lots of picnic tables and places to sit and enjoy the last of the summer days. I had hoped that they might have a proper restaurant for lunch, but they did not. They did have some snacks and so I had a small flight of three beers and we had some chips and enjoyed the sunshine.
My beer flight at the brewery.
One of the any ships on display in the marina in the Marine Museum.
From there, it was time to head back to the mainland. The ferry was only about a 10 minute drive away and there was a ferry leaving in about 15 minutes, so our timing was perfect! This was nothing like the fairies to Galiano, as we were able to drive straight onto the ferry without a reservation. It was very easy! The trip back was only about 20 minutes and we were back on the mainland in no time. We had really enjoyed our time on Texel Island. I would’ve been happy to spend a little more time there, especially to have done some proper biking around the island and you could explore those dunes forever. It was time to continue with our exploration of the Netherlands.
On our way over to Texel in Den Helder, we had noticed that there was a big submarine in the area of the docks next to where the ferry departed. That looked intriguing and so we decided to head over and check that out before continuing on to Alkmaar.
The submarine was an exhibit at the Royal Navy Museum. Den Helder has a pretty significant naval presence, and they had set up the museum here to show the history of the Dutch Navy.
We decided to go inside, mostly to see the submarine, but also spent a little time exploring some of the other exhibits. They had some very cool models of all the old ships back to the sailing days, as well as some good exhibits, explaining the history of the Dutch Navy. It was pretty interesting.
Entering the submarine through the top of the ship.
The main reason we had gone in was to see the submarine and so we didn’t spend as much time in that first area. We headed over to explore the submarine, which was very, very cool - although quite tiny and cramped for me. The submarine, the HNLMS Tonijn, started construction on the 26th of October 1962 at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard in Schiedam and launched on 14 June 1965. On the 24th of February 1966 she was commissioned in the Dutch navy. The ship was decommissioned in 1991, and became the centrepiece of the museum in 1994.
As this was my first time on a sub, it became very clear that I could never have been a submariner. They don’t build them for large people! It was a struggle for me to move around inside the ship going through the tiny doors and the tiny cabins gave me complete claustrophobia! I don’t know how people survive those things for period of time. It was super cool to see all of the details about how the submarine operated and how the people lived and worked on it. But I was happy to get out. After the submarine, we explored to other ships that they had there.
The larger the HNLMS Schorpioen, was a ship that was caught as the transition was made from wooden to to steel hulled ships. It was designed as a ramming vessel with a reinforced hull. But once they had built it and tested it out, it never really worked. It is pretty funny to think that all that time and money was invested in a design that was fundamentally flawed.
The super-cool engine inside the ship.
Officially, the HNLMS Schorpioen is a Schorpioen-class monitor built in France for the Royal Netherlands Navy in the 1860s. These new ships were equipped with heavy rifled 23 cm guns, and a heavy armour. The hull had an armour plated belt of 15 cm and the gun turret, housing the two guns, had almost 30 cm of armour.
There was even a brig set-up in the ship!
She came from the building yard with two tripod masts and able to employ about 600 m2 of sails, but she proved to be a difficult sailing ship and some years later the sails were removed. Her huge steam engines gave her a maximum speed of 13 knots. Her striking weapon was the pointed ram bow, but she never ever used this overestimated weapon.They ended up converting it into a floating hotel for service people. The main use was for female sailors that need to be separated from male sailors at the time. It was pretty neat to see inside and it had much more luxurious appointments for the captain and the first officers.
The final ship was a much smaller one, and it was a mind sweeper that was active during World War II called the HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen. This one was interesting to learn about how mine sweepers worked, which I really had no idea about. This one also had a very interesting story about her service history.
HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen
Built during the 1930s, she was based in the Dutch East Indies when Japan attacked at the end of 1941. Ordered to retreat to Australia, the ship was disguised as a tropical island to avoid detection, and was the last Dutch ship to escape from the region. On arriving in Australia in 1942, she was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as HMAS Abraham Crijnssen and operated as an anti-submarine escort. Although returned to RNN control in 1943, the ship remained in Australian waters for most of World War II. After the war, Abraham Crijnssen operated on anti-revolution patrols in the East Indies, before returning to the Netherlands and being converted into a boom defence ship in 1956. We didn’t spend as much time on this last ship as it was time for us to continue our journey and south to Alkmaar.
The drive to Alkmaar took about an hour, and we found our accommodation quite easily. Unfortunately, we had a little bit of a hard time getting in as the person was not immediately available. But he did show up relatively quickly and we got settled into our new accommodation. This place was a little bit odd and was definitely the worst accommodation so far. Still it was only for one night so we would do.
The walk into the centre of town was about 30 minutes and was a lovely stroll through the old town. Along the way, we managed to find another craft store for Mom and McKenzie to explore, which took up quite a bit of time. In fairness, it was a much nicer craft store, much better than the “greatest craft store in Den Hague”.
The walk inot the town center was loverly, crossing many canals and bridges.
Alkmaar ended up being a very pretty little town. Somewhat like Leiden with the canals running through the old town center. And strangely, there was a carnival going on in the town. We never did figure out what for, but we did see lots of kids rides and games to play and lots of food stalls and vendors. It was a bit odd, but it added a lot of atmosphere to our visit!
On the way back out, we snagged a snack at the crazy carnival. We had to try the oliebollen - something we have every New Year’s Day. Mackenzie and Mom both thought that Lisa’s are better!
The reason we were in Alkmaar was for the cheese market. Alkmaar Omar is famous and has had this cheese market since something like the 1500s. Alkmaar's cheese market at the Waagplein, is one of the country's most popular tourist attractions.
The cheese market on the edge of the Waagplein
The Waagplein is the backdrop for this traditional cheese market. After the old-fashioned way of the hand clap, traders and carriers will weigh the cheeses. It is one of only four traditional Dutch cheese markets still in existence. The traditional fare of this cheese market is those cheeses made in the local area, as opposed to the well-known brands of Dutch cheeses, including the Edam and Gouda cheeses. It is not actually possible to buy cheese at the market itself, which is really only a demonstration of how this merchants' market operated in times gone by. However, the demonstration, which takes place in front of the medieval weighing house, is surrounded by many specialized stalls where it is possible to buy all kinds of cheese (and non-cheese) related products.
The market is usually on Saturdays but in the summer there is one on Tuesday evening as well and so that was our reason for making the stop. We had a bit of a scare when some of the local documentation suggested it was still only on the weekends. We wandered in the centre of town and found the beautiful cheese market building, and we were pleased to see that the market was still going that evening. We found a spot along the railing close to the action and had about a half hour wait before the market started.
Tasting and verifying the quality of the cheese.
So much cheese!
It was pretty fascinating to see release huge wheels of cheese just laid out in the market square. There were people inspecting them and grading them and eventually these dudes in these little coloured hats would come out and pick up a sled full of cheese, take it to be weighed and then bring it back to put it on carts to take it out after people had “bought” them. It was pretty frenetic and went on for two hours. We didn’t stay long, as we watched for probably half an hour and then purchased some additional cheese and then moved on to find some dinner.
After a long day, we found an amazing spot for dinner and enjoyed the evening.
We picked a small restaurant to sit and enjoy a lovely evening meal. The food was fantastic, and the location was very, very nice sitting by the water. After that, we walked back to our accommodation and called it a night.