April 30th:2008: Koninginnedag 1 (Texel)

April 30th was Koninginnedag, or Queen's Day, which is one of the biggest Dutch holidays of the year. Queen's Day is a celebration of the queen's birthday - for more information you can check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koninginnedag

My Queen's Day started at around 6am, when I was woken up by what sounded like 30 kids running down the street and screaming... At 8am it sounded like there was a brass band playing inside of the house. It took me a few minutes to figure out where the music was coming from - and then I spotted the band playing from the top of the church tower.A big part of Queen's day is the markets - basically, everyone claims a spot on the street and then attempts to sell their old stuff. I didn't get a good explanation from my Dutch friends for what the markets have to do with the queen's birthday - but it is tradition.


The photo above is of people selling their stuff in the streets of Den Burg. Also, a main part of Queen's day seems to be to drink as much beer as possible. Even at 8am I saw people walking around and drinking beer! At around 10am, I was on the train to Amsterdam - and I think I was the only sober person in my section of the train. The train ride was very loud and crazy - and there was a lot of beer drinking!
I spent the day in Amsterdam, and then returned to the island for the bonfires in the evening, which are a tradition on Texel. As the ferry approached the island, the smoke from fires all over the island was visible, as well as the fire from t' Horntje (the small village located next to the ferry).
The picture above was taken the day before Queen's day - notice the pile of wood behind the van. People dropped off their extra wood for the bonfire (basically, everything from tree branches to old chairs, tables and doors). I missed the lighting of the bonfire - but it was still huge when I got there. I actually wouldn't be surprised if it was still smoking today...
All around the big bonfire, there were probably 50-75 smaller fires - and people were cooking and drinking beer around the smaller fires. The kids come up to you and rub soot on your face - another tradition here.

April 24th, 2008: tulips!

Spring has finally arrived on Texel and the tulip fields are starting to bloom. Here are some photos taken on my ride to work this morning.

March 25th, 2008: lots and lots of hail!

This may look like snow, but it's not - it's actually hail. This picture is from my bike ride in to work this morning - it was a bit slippery! For the past few weeks the weather patterns have been sort of strange. There seems to be lots of small clouds passing over the island. It will be sunny (or sort of sunny) for a few minutes and then an intense but relatively short storm will occur. For the last week and a half, I have been caught in a hail storm on nearly every bike ride to or from work. I have to say that I'm not a big fan of hail when biking - it's really painful!


Yesterday was a strange day. It seemed like it was doing something different outside every 15 minutes or so. It snowed for a few minutes.


The daffodils are now in bloom! I took this picture last week. Now, they are covered in ice from the hail...

March 5th, 2008: random Texel pictures

The first signs of spring on Texel - some crocuses and other little bulbs have started flowering. Last week it was relatively warm - however, this week has been quite cold and we've been having quite a few hail storms. I got caught in one yesterday on my bike ride home and it was terrible (quite painful). Interestingly, there is now a 2nd flamingo on Texel (near Den Hoorn) but it is on the opposite side of the island from the other flamingo.

I took a walk on the beach the other day. It was really windy and there was quite a bit of sand flying around...
And some pictures of the hairy cows I passed on my way to check out the latest flamingo on Texel. Unfortunately, I still do not have any good flamingo pictures...

Feb. 17th, 2008: The Texel FLAMINGO!!!

Ok, I know these photos are not the greatest since I don't have a very large zoom on my camera... But, I saw a FLAMINGO on Texel yesterday!!! Yes, it is a real flamingo and not a plastic one, and yes, it is alive. I have no idea what it is doing here or if it can even survive here (it has been quite cold out here recently, but sunny, which is nice). I couldn't really get any closer to the flamingo to take a better picture - but I did ask a friend who has a really fancy camera if he could take a picture of it. So, hopefully he'll be able to get a better photo of it...

January 28th, 2008: Winter on Texel

Winter on Texel is very dark, windy and rainy - although the temperatures are generally mild. Actually, it seems to be windy here all of the time - usually the bike ride to/from work is horrible in at least one direction... Last week we had one very nice and sunny day (and pretty much everyone left work early to try do something outside).
As you can tell from the shadow, I was taking pictures while biking. My Dutch friends can do amazing things while riding a bike - for example, most of my friends can take off their backpack, then take off a jacket, put the jacket away in the backpack and then put the backpack on again, all while riding with no hands... I'm slowly learning to do more things while riding a bike but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to take off a jacket...

Winter on Texel is sort of strange since the grass is still green! I guess that since it's so moist and the temperatures are relatively mild that the grass is able to grow year round. I think it is strange to see trees without leaves with fields of green grass though.
As you can tall from these pictures, it has been raining a lot...
I should try and attempt to take some pictures of a more typical winter day on Texel - but usually I'm biking both to and from work in the dark (yes, the sun rises after I get to the office) and when it is rainy I don't want to take out my camera...

January 14th, 2008: Pictures from my winter break

Chopping down the Christmas with a very dull axe...

Lots of snow in Maine!

An owl at the birdfeeder.
Snowshoeing in northern Minnesota