Biker Belles - Wednesday, June 11

Day 12- Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Bike and Sail Day 4: Texel – Terschelling (sailing about 5 – 6 hrs.)

Today you will enjoy sailing on your ship, when the tide and the weather are right, to the island of Terschelling. As you sail your way through the sandbanks of the Wadden Sea, keep a lookout for seals on the sandbars. In the afternoon, the ship will arrive on Terschelling island, which features a number of picturesque villages situated between the polder and sand dunes along its 30 km expanse. While sailing, you will enjoy an extensive lunch on board. 2024: No dinner will be served tonight, to enable you to explore the island, but you can make yourself a picnic meal or try one of the nice restaurants at Terschelling.

*We were unable to sail today due to no wind. We also had to leave the port early to get a dock at Terschelling due to a festival. We ended up arriving in Terschelling at 10:45 am instead of our late afternoon arrival time as preplanned. This allowed for an extra day of biking on the island.

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Lunch was served on the boat today. Dinner will be on our own!

Sue, Shannon, Pat, Kirk, Harry, and Jo decided to go explore the island without a tour guide.

First stop was at a lake in the town of Hee. This lake came highly recommended with it's sandy beaches and sand dunes. We are spoiled in Michigan as this seemed like a "normal" Michigan lake.

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After swimming, Sue and Pat changed in the woods. Only while changing to realize they didn't check all angles, notice the back of a gentleman in the woods.

Many windmills have been turned into museums or ice cream shops. Up to this point, it has been difficult to find a windmill that hasn't been restored into something else. The picture on the left shows some of the original stone.

While we were biking we saw a sign that said Heartbreak Hotel with an arrow. We decided to follow the route and made it to the beach and North Sea.

Beware of Jellyfish! Jo became an expert at spotting them! The purple ones, like those shown above, don't sting as badly as the ones with brown tentacles. The locals used to use these purple ones to throw at each other and have jellyfish wars, very similar to us throwing water balloons at each other.

Flags set up on the beach for the festival.

We were riding back to the ship along the Wadden Sea side of the island and came across the De Streken. It is a piece of art that opens and closes with the tides.

We continued our bike ride. We encountered a lot of sheep either in our path or on the dikes.

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The lighthouse of Terschelling, known as Brandaris, is the oldest working lighthouse in the Netherlands. It's a prominent landmark located in West-Terschelling, dating back to 1594. The lighthouse can be seen from most points of the island.