Saturday 11 May 2024--I take a roundabout route to De Koog, passing first through the village of Den Hoorn (not to be confused with the town of Hoorn, which I will visit later), and then on back roads through the one wooded area of Texel, part of the Nationaal Park Duinen van Texel. Bicycles outnumber cars about fifty to one. De Koog is clearly Texel's beach town, sitting just back of the dunes. The pedestrianized main street is lined with restaurants and bars. There are a couple of fair-sized hotels along the road leading to the beach, which must swell the permanent population of about a thousand by multiples in summer. The beach pavilion, a seasonal restaurant and bar, is one of a dozen along the length of the island. I take off my shoes and socks and wet my feet in the North Sea. There's nothing like the sun on a beautiful spring day. If I'd come here a decade ago, I might have thought about walking the whole fifteen miles of beach here, over a few days. Today I cover a few hundred yards.

Back in the village, I have lunch and a beer in one of the cafés before returning to Den Burg for my last evening on Texel. After dinner in De 12 Balcken, I fall into conversation with a young German woman named Katerina. I've noticed that the vast majority of visitors here are Netherlanders, with a small minority of Germans. I haven't run into any Americans or Brits. I quite like that. Katerina is amused to see me writing out postcards to friends. I still like to do it, although cards are getting harder and harder to find, and stamps are getting expensive.

De 12 Balcken has a fair number of whiskies on the shelf, but I've been more interested in the two bottles of Calvados. There's a younger one, fairly reasonably priced, but I've been putting a good dent in the older one. What the heck, I'm on vacation. I don't think I've put so much of a dent in Texel--just scratched the surface, really. I make the usual promise to myself to return, to get to know the place in greater depth. I really mean it this time.