Tour de Pays-Bas Day 3: Alkmaar to Vlieland
Alkmaar - Den Helder: 43.5 km
Google Maps time: 2 hrs, 19 min Our time: 2 hrs, 42 min
All right, no more messing around. After our first two days of more leisurely biking, we have to pick up the pace for the third stage of our Borrel Tour de Pays-Bas to cover a considerably longer distance and ferry between two of the Netherlands’ Wadden Islands. Getting to Texel isn’t a problem, as the ferry from Den Helder goes every half hour. But our final destination Vlieland (or Oost Vlieland to be exact), requires us to be in De Cocksdorp (at least an hour’s ride through Texel, bottom to top) at a strict time of 4:45 p.m. to board De Vriendschap (“The Friendship”). So in order to explore Texel at all, we want to get there by noon. Here we go!
We’re up early, fuelled on breakfast courtesy of the College Hotel Alkmaar (thank you!) and focused on getting to Den Helder as close to the Google Maps time as possible. With just one stop in the village of 't Zand for some water and a couple of photo ops (but still so many that we had to miss - sorry!), we’re pretty proud of ourselves to bike the 48.1 km in 2 hours and 42 minutes and make it just in time to board the noon ferry to Texel.
Den Hoorn - De Cocksdorp: 24.6 km
Google Maps time: 73 minutes Our time: 4 hours (including lunch and exploring)
The five islands situated north of Noord Holland (the Wadden Islands) have fascinated Justin since his Grade 4 geography lessons during the year he spent at school in the Netherlands. He pondered what life was like up there. And it only took more than three decades to find out! Texel is the most populated and most visited of the Wadden Islands. It’s a popular tourist destination and it certainly doesn’t feel remote as we exit the ferry with a literal boatload of other visitors traveling by car, bike or on foot. But it’s not without its charms. There are several quieter small towns that we will bike through. And a lot of sheep. Like SO MANY sheep.
We stop for lunch in Den Burg, the busiest and most central of the towns on Texel, where we also sample a vaasje (a ¼ litre) of the local brewery famous now all over the Netherlands: Texels. … We must confess, our first beer on the island was a Heineken as the Texels flagship beer (Texelse Skuumkoppe) is a sturdy 6% and not in line with Justin’s low ABV-inclined palate. The shame! But our lunch spot has the Texels Zeebries Blond (at a more manageable 5%) available and redemption is served!
After a longer stay in Den Burg than we intended, we have to zip through many of the towns on the island to get to the top. But we slow down to appreciate the highlight of our ride to De Vriendschap: the incredible bike-only route on a raised dyke between Oosterend and De Cocksdorp with a spectacular view of the Waddenzee. (As beautiful as it is, some of the ride is a tough grind with some of the toughest tegenwind we’ve faced so far!)
Arriving at De Vriendschap is another highlight. Hand painted wooden arrows pointing the way, we are led to a somewhat rickety-looking but kinda magical wooden bridge that takes us and our bikes over the beach and onto the boat. After nearly 70 km of cycling, we are so happy and relieved to be on a boat and kick back for what should be a blissful 90 minutes of sailing to our destination in Vlieland … right?
Not quite. We thought De Vriendschap would take us to the ferry dock just steps away from our hotel in Vlieland, but this was not the case at all. At first, the boat ride is even better than we imagined (the captain even has shots of genever available!) as the ship pulls up to a beach on the south end of Vlieland, which is populated by dozens of seals!
We’re treated to a bit of a show as seals slide into the water and pop their heads up right beside the ship. We’re so delighted by all of this that we completely fail to notice that everyone else is disembarking the boat already. Turns out this is the end of our ferry ride and we are the last to awkwardly hoist our bikes over yet another makeshift bridge and onto the vast beach. We follow our fellow passengers toward a huge yellow vehicle with massive wheels that looks like something out of a Mad Max film. (We were too gobsmacked and confused at what was happening to take a photo of any of this. But here’s a photo of the Vliehors Expres we found online.)
This wasn’t in the brochure, right? And isn’t Vlieland supposed to be a car-free island? (Well, maybe not monster truck-free.) We keep wondering if everyone else knows what the hell is going on here. They certainly look a little confused as well. Is anyone going to speak up (maybe they’re waiting for us to?). But it appears as though this crazy-looking sand truck is going to be taking us the rest of the way up the island to Het Posthuys, a hotel in the middle of the island. But not our hotel. Our hotel is in Oost Vlieland, where our driver gruffly tells us he is not going. “But we have bike lanes on the island,” he says with a laugh. Looks like we still have another 9 km of biking to do today. But how’s he going to get all of our bikes on this thing? If a little brusque, our driver is a total pro and he has a system. We’re all asked to remove our panniers and luggage from our bikes, and with enormous skill that would serve him well at Tetris, and some admirable teamwork from our fellow passengers, our bicycles are systematically loaded and fitted onto the truck. Once everything is secured, it’s our turn to board for a somewhat harrowing but visually stunning ride across the “Sahara of the North.” If we are a little disappointed in our shortened ferry ride, this is certainly an unexpected addition to our adventure!
Het Posthuys - Oost Vlieland: 9 km
Google Maps time: 54 minutes Our time: 89 minutes
We’re exhausted but the cycling path through Vlieland is one of the most spectacular we’ve ever seen, curling through vast swaths of hilly grassland and sand dunes under dramatic evening clouds. And then it leads into a forest! This island has a stunning variety of landscapes. (Unfortunately Justin’s phone is dead and with Alison’s phone now in use for directions, we just have the one photo.)
Although it’s a magnificent ride, we speed through it and are relieved to finally arrive at our hotel and enjoy a glass of Prosecco on the terrace looking out at the Waddenzee. We’ve also worked up quite an appetite for a big seafood dinner: a local fish soup (Vlielander Vissoep) followed by a huge pot of mussels and a paella to share. Here’s to the completion of an epic total day trip of 77.6 km! By far our most ambitious day of cycling! … Not to be repeated anytime soon!
CAFÉ OF THE DAY: Loods Café
Because we got into Vlieland later than we had expected, we didn’t have much time to explore the town before the kitchen closed at the hotel restaurant. But we quickly ducked into Loods Café and we were glad we did! “Een rustpunt, een ontmoetingsplek en een locatie die staat voor plezier en gezelligheid” (“A rest point, a meeting spot and a place that stands for enjoyment and gezelligheid”), Loods Café was as advertised! A perfect cozy little place to wind down with a drink after a long day of biking, we hope to go back and spend a bit more time there one day.
WHAT WE MISSED: In our rush to get to Den Burg for a much-needed snack and beverage after booking it all the way up to the ferry in Den Helder, we biked right past a sheep farm that was advertising “lammetjes knuffelen” (aka cuddle lambs!). Texel is an island with an enormous sheep population, so it seems like THE place to snuggle a sweet little lamb. Texel is also well known for the lively seaside town of De Koog on the west side of the island, which is a hub for many visitors who come over for swimming, surfing and shopping. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for any of that this time around!
But our biggest regret? There was a Tom Petty tribute show in Vlieland that night! Even though it would’ve meant ANOTHER 20 minutes of biking to get some camping ground in an even more remote part of the island, we must’ve been exhausted as we love Tom Petty! Still sad about missing this one.
LEARN FROM THE AMATEURS: Certainly after today, we started to appreciate just how tough a bike ride can be. While there are many inspiring sights along the way and there’s a huge sense of fulfillment in reaching a destination by bike (not to mention a great workout), cycling any distance can be hard work. And when you’re following along live on Google Maps, you really feel how much effort goes into every minute of cycling (we highly recommend turning off your phone once you have a few kilometres of easy-to-follow bike paths ahead. It makes for a much more enjoyable ride). Google Maps bases its times on the assumption that you’re riding at a pace of about 20 km/hr. That’s not unreasonable. But when you’ve got two full pannier bags, a heavy backpack and Mother Nature throwing some strong headwinds and/or rain your way, you’re likely to be moving a bit slower than that.
For example, we mapped our route through the island of Texel this way based on Google Maps times: Ferry Terminal to Den Hoorn = 11 minutes, Den Hoorn to Den Burg = 18 minutes, Den Burg to De Waal = 10 minutes, De Waal to Oosterend = 14 minutes, Oosterend to De Cocksdorp = 33 minutes, De Cocksdop to De Vriendschap = 10 minutes. So about an hour and a half of biking. When we planned this months ago at home in Toronto, we imagined ourselves stopping off and exploring each of these towns. But with strong headwinds and a boat to catch, we just had to power through the island and it was a tough 90 minutes!
Also, you’ll see a lot of beautiful sights or cute animals along the way that you’ll want to photograph and some interesting-looking towns you might want to venture into, which will all slow you down. Not to say you shouldn’t! But our schedule meant that we had to forgo some photos that we would’ve loved to share with you and breeze past some lookout points and historical towns that deserved a writeup as well. You can’t see everything! While Justin was a bit disappointed we only had one other day on our trip that would be more than 50 km of biking, he’s grateful now that he listened to Alison about not overdoing it.