Another day in Northern Holland

We took one last look Hindeloopen and headed north again though a few more small villages and then headed across the Afsluitdejk. It is a dike that was built so they could drain Ijsselmeer Lake but the enviormentalists had a fit so now there is just an expensive dike and road that connects one side of the Netherlands to the other. It is 30 km long and takes you right to Den Helder were you can catch the ferry to Texel, the largest of the northern islands.
Here is our little rental car that was perfect for us. We are in line to get on the ferry and were one of the last cars to make it on.
We crammed our car on with everyone else and then headed up stairs to use the restrooms before we got to Texel. The ferry ride isn't very long not even 20 minutes, just like every thing in Holland, nothing is too far away unless you get caught in traffic.
We headed right up the center of the island to De Cocksdrop. The sun was out but with the ocean breeze, the temperature was just right. We stopped at a little place for lunch and sat out front to eat but they had plastic along the side of their property and so there wasn't any air movement. Luckily the food was really good so it made up for the heat. We have really missed Anita and Jip explaining the menus to us and several times have been surprised with what we ended up getting. Like yesterday when I thought I was ordering a roastbeef sandwich and ended up with two pieces of bread with sliced roast beef on them and three fried eggs on top of that.

After lunch we made our way up to the lighthouse and went to have a look at the North Sea. Texel is famous for its white beaches and sand dunes and we were able to see them from here. Here is our first look at the North Sea. Everyone on this island was on bikes but just a few of us and the whole island catered to the bikers. It really would have been fun to ride around on, just like all of Holland. The country is made for bikes with all the bike paths and it is all flat - no hills! When we first got to the island, I wished we had rented bikes, but when I saw how far everything was and how hot the sun was, I was glad we had our air conditioned car. We stopped at another beach and had to climb all these stairs to the top of the sand dune to get to see the beach. I was anxious to take my shoes off and wade in the water but when we got to the top I changed my mind.
We assumed that we would see the beach just right there a few feet below us but, how wrong we were! We could bare even see the North Sea. We could see the trail the people were taking to get out to the beach but it was looked like was at least 2 miles away!
And what surprised me even more was that the people were hardly carrying anything with them. When we go to the beach we have the whole family loaded down with "stuff" and we only have to walk a few feet. These people were going on a trek and not taking anything! Our last shot from the top of the dike looking at all the bikes that had been left by the beach goers.
We didn't want to get back too late because Rob had to come pick us up so we decided to head home. The traffic was just crawling along as we got off the ferry. On the left side of the road was a maritime museum with a big ship and submarine out front. The guy a head of us was looking at it and at the same time stepped on the gas just when the guy in front of him slammed on his brakes. We had seen our first accident and it wasn't in Paris. Garth couldn't wait to tell Jip. The poor guy who hadn't been paying attention had demolished the front end of his car and the guy in front of him sure wasn't too happy, but he didn't have much damage.

I navigated us to the freeway, around Amsterdam and we were headed south to Eidhoven. We were quite proud of ourselves and our ability to get around, we did wish we had asked Rob and Anita the meaning of the traffic signs before we left though. I thought I had mapped out our route all on one freeway when I realized that what I thought said A35 was actually A25! Leave it to my bad eyes, we had gone out of our way about 60 km and were on the other side of the country, right back where we had been the day before! I have to hand it to Garth, he didn't even get mad at me or say a thing about the extra hour we had to spend in the car not to mention the expensive gas we had used. When we got back to Eindhoven, it was pouring and we had to return our car and move our luggage while trying not to get too wet. Not the best way to end a great trip.