By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com
Day 3 of Boat Bike Tours’ eight-day Islandhopping tour proves to be my favorite, most perfect day – the biking, the attractions, the scenery, the gestalt of the island of Texel, even the weather, all combining for a thrilling experience. We will be biking roundtrip from and back to Oudeschild with a choice of a 26 mile or 30 mile route. We soon discover the treasures harbored on The Texel Roads.
We start off biking together to Ecomare, a seal sanctuary and ecology center with superb displays, exhibits and notes (with English) that teach about ecology, climate change, animal and environmental conservation, focused on the local area, making clear what these existential planetary changes mean for the people living here.
I start in the room with skeletons of actual whales – enormous, suspended so that they look like they are swimming – then move to an aquarium where you can see rescued seals swimming under water. You go outside to the various habitats where there are excellent explanations of why the seals were rescued (and the steps they take to avoid “rescuing” a seal that is merely resting on the beach), what their prognosis is to be re-released into the wild or whether some condition, like blindness, will require them to stay.
We see areas where baby animals are nurtured, where medical procedures are conducted, where seal pups are raised until they can be released (I wonder how they learn how to hunt for themselves), and where animals are quarantined (the sign says it’s a good thing if this area is empty!).
I go walking on the dunes and come upon a turf hut (“zoonekeet” or “zooien huus”) of one of dune farmers, named Pagga who lived here until 1909.
Our stay is timed so we get to see a feeding, before heading out again.
I stick with my group doing the longer ride (41 km), until we reach a delightful town of Dun Berg, where there is a huge event going on with a military band and seniors in wheelchairs who have been gathered for the concert that turns out to be the May 20 celebration of Texel’s Independence (different from the Netherlands, because it marks the day they finally expelled the German occupiers).
I spend about a half-hour wandering the lovely town center before breaking off on my own in order to arrive back in Oudeschild in time to visit the Museum Kaap Skil. I feel very brave but use the RideGPS to give me the route, even though I find myself double-checking that I have selected the right route to follow. Because it stays light so late (till nearly 9 pm), I figure even if I get lost, I can still get back during daylight.
I find myself so delighted to be doing these 12 miles on my own – it is idyllic pastoral scenery that compels me to stop to take photos – then I ride through a couple of villages, then onto the path along the dyke with the ocean on one side and the high berm with sheep (who keep the grass shorn) on the other, that takes me right to the harbor and the ship.
Discovering Museum Kaap Skil’s Treasure Trove
I make it back in under two hours, by 3:15 pm, with just enough time to really enjoy this astonishing Museum Kaap Skil (do not miss it!), in which the historic windmill, so prominent in the landscape, is the centerpiece.
I quickly drop my things in my cabin, then climb the stairs up and over the dyke, down below sea level to the village and the museum.
The museum has a small village of outdoor attractions including the historic windmill and a ship, Texelse Blazer, dated 1894, that is being restored, and authentically furnished cottages, beachcomber’s shed and smithy, gives you a realistic view of island life during the Netherlands’ Golden Age of Sail.
On Tuesdays and Thursday when volunteers dress in period clothes, you can watch wool being spun, fishnets being mended, ropemaking, and taste a smoked fish (tastiest smoked fish I’ve ever had), visit the grocery store and walk into homes furnished as they would have been.
I save the indoor exhibits in the modern museum for last (the outdoor village closes at 4 pm, the museum at 5 pm). These extraordinary exhibits of artifacts rescued from shipwrecks in the Wadden Sea that were so plentiful off this port – an indication of how important a port Texel was during the Golden Age of Sail – are a fitting climax to the visit.
I start on the upper floor, in “World Voyage,” where you can follow specific ships to their destination and see artifacts obtained from them.. A centrally located compass shows the way and Texel folk from the past tell their stories, assisted by shipwreck finds. People such as Albert Gronders, who sailed the Baltic Sea yearly to buy grain in the 17th century, narrates the north shipping. about Baltic Sea shipping. If you go east, then Jacob Schagen, who, as a 15-year-old Texel man, sailed for the Far East aboard the VOC ship De Jonge Lieve in 1762, narrates about the eastern shipping routes. Texel folk from the past also tell their stories about journeys west and southbound.
Alongside the adventurous and positive aspects of seventeenth century trade for Texel, World Voyage also explores its “shadow sides:” “Adventure, wealth, trade and romance, but also exploitation, danger, slavery and poverty. Global trade in the 16th and 17th century knew many faces,” reads a self-aware note.
A section themed “A Complex History,” acknowledges the violence, greed and role in the slave trade that enabled Holland’s seafaring empire. Among the artifacts displayed are tools destined for slaves to use on a sugar plantation in Suriname alongside luxury objects meant to guarantee the plantation owners a comfortable life, salvaged from a ship that sunk near Texel, never having reached the destination.
The displays are sensational, with many having interactive elements (the notes in English are much appreciated: I also enjoy reading about “The Women Who Stayed Behind”.
The stellar attraction in Museum Kaap Skil is a 17th century silk dress “of royal allure,” salvaged from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Wadden Sea. Given the name ‘Palmhoutwrak‘ (Palmwood wreck), this was a merchant ship carrying luxurious goods, that must have been wrecked on the Texel Roads around 1650. The precious garment is still in amazingly good condition despite having lain on the seabed for almost four centuries. “It is a unique find worldwide; hardly any clothing from the seventeenth century has been preserved. Scientists expect to need years to answer all the questions that the dress has raised.” It is now on display with other textiles and artifacts in a new exhibition at the Museum Kaap Skil, kept in a protective airtight display cases, filled with nitrogen, especially designed for the fragile textiles in this exhibition.
“Every find from the Palmwood Wreck is important, but the dress has been dubbed “the ‘Nightwatch’ of the textile world.”
The findings were so extensive that researchers had been working for years to make an inventory and only recently discovered that a second dress from the Palmwood Wreck was most probably a wedding dress, adorned with silver. This dress was less well-preserved but you can see it as well as what it would look like “restored” to its glory in an animation
The Palmwood finds are divided into four themes in the exhibition: wealth, worldly, intimate and stylish. Together they show how valuable, tasteful and exclusive the cargo was: a calf leather bookbinding and a gilded silver cup bearing the English royal family Stuart’s coat of arms in gold print; objects gathered from all corners of the globe: like an oriental rug and a caftan; intimate objects like a toiletry set, knitted silk stockings and a red silk bodice.
Merchant vessels, warships, whalers: they all anchored on what was known as “the Texel Roads.” In the 16th and 17th century this was the place to load, unload and wait for favorable winds, the notes explain. But many ships were lost in storms, which is why there are dozens of shipwrecks lying in the seabed near Texel and how it comes to be that so many of these artifacts can now be viewed at Museum Kaap Skil with such interesting detail. You have more of a personalized connection to each object.
In the exposition ‘Ship in Sight – the Roads of Texel and the World’, the Roads of Texel come alive. A dimension has been added to what is claimed to be “the world’s largest maritime scale model.” The hidden stories about the 160 ships have become visible, thanks to new technique. They show that the Roads of Texel was the logistic hub of the 17th century.
So I find myself in this enormous room – I’m guessing over 100-feet long – that has a model of the city with all the various ships in the harbor (you can use a telescope to zero in on anything, then look up the back story of 160 ships and what happened to that particular ship). Then, extending the full length of the room, an animated film so realistically created of the ships sailing into port, finishes with a massive storm hitting, and you watch how fast one of the ships sinks.
On large touchscreens, you see the ship models very close up, down to the smallest details. There is the Seven Provinces, the ship with which Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter won many navel battles, and the Petronella, a fluyt ship we learn was headed to Riga to buy grain. You can learn about the ship’s features, the routes sailed, personal stories, special facts and important events.
The exhibits make the point just how important the Roads of Texel was as the logistic hub of the 17th century.
You know what – it is spectacular to see first hand, but if you cannot visit, check out the website, https://kaapskil.nl/en/ (You can actually watch the thrilling and fascinating hour-long video on the museum website, https://kaapskil.nl/en/discover/expositions/ship-in-sight-the-roads-of-texel-and-the-world/.)
Museum Kaap Skil, Heemskerckstraat 9, 1792 AA Oudeschild, Netherlands, Phone:+31 222 314 956, https://kaapskil.nl/en/ Tickets: 12E (a bargain).
In the evening, after dinner, our Boat Bike Tours guide Edith leads a walking tour of Oudeschild. After, I wander around the harbor and walk along the dyke, the colors absolutely stunning in the setting sun.
More information, Boat Bike Tours, www.boatbiketours.com, 203-814-1249.
Next: Boat Bike Tours Islandhopping on the Wadden Sea: Sailing, Biking, Exploring Terschelling
See also:
SETTING SAIL ON BOAT BIKE TOURS’ ISLANDHOPPING TOUR TO THE WADDEN SEA
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