Texel, the biggest island of the “Waddeneilanden” in the Netherlands. A beautiful island, easily explored by bike.
September, the corona pandemic is still ongoing. Luckily, the government introduced some rules for partners (that were not married or registered partners) from countries outside the EU to come over if you can proof you are having a sustainable relationship. No problem proving that, my boyfriend (American) came over for my birthday and vacation in the Netherlands.
First destination: Texel. I had never been there, so new land to explore.
Lighthouse
The first day after we arrived we decided to make a walk along the beach to breath in the fresh air and do some geocaching. It was very refreshing. Then, we rented a tandem bike and cycled up north to see the lighthouse at sunset. It was a beautiful ride and we arrived at the lighthouse a bit before sunset.
The beach still had a lot of water spread in big puddles from high tide, which gave in combination with no wind perfect reflections.
For my birthday I got a ND1000 filter which blocks a lot of light and allows you to take long exposed pictures without over exposing them. So, we decided to have some fun with that and create a “ghost” picture of us kissing in front of the lighthouse.
Sunset
The sky turned very blue and with the reflections of all the water scattered around I made this very nice “Blue reflection” picture. It was also taken with the filter and had an exposure time of 15 seconds. It became one of my favorite pictures!
Of course I had to take pictures of the sunset itself too. And again, due to all the water surrounding us, it had some very nice reflections. I used the filter and exposure times up to 30 seconds.
With such a nice sunset, we had to make another kiss picture. With a timer set we ran to the other side of the puddle and stood still while kissing for 30 seconds (or a little more to make sure we ended it after the picture was taken). It became the “Sunset kiss” and is one of our favorite pictures.
Sunset kiss 
Sunset kiss (cropped)
After this picture it was time to cycle back to our studio, while there was still some light left. This was important since the path we had to take was not lit by any lanterns. We managed to get back with the last daylight, felt very satisfied and slept well.
East coast
The next day we took the tandem and cycled across the island to the east coast. We stayed close to the De Koog on the west coast, so we literally crossed the whole island which is about 11 km. It was a nice ride through farmlands and small villages. Finally, we reached the coast and were rewarded with a nice sea view and a windmill.
Sea view 
Windmill
Ecomare
On the last day it was going to rain, so we decided to visit Ecomare. This is a place where injured seals, birds, and some other water animals can recover until they are ready to be set back in the sea. There are also a few animals that won’t leave the facility due to the fact they grew up without parents to teach them how to survive in the wild.
They have a few aquaria with fish as well, which teach us about the kind of fishes that are living in the sea around Texel. And, there is a museum part which shows how sea animals evolved over time with some nice facts about them, and learn about the environment, fishermen, and what plastic does to fish and birds. All in all worth the visit with cute seals and some educational value.
What’s next?
Like I said in the beginning, Texel was our first destination of our holiday in the Netherlands. The next and final destination was the Veluwe and that story will come online later. So, keep an eye on the website if you like to know more about that trip and see what pictures I took there.
Thanks for reading! Do you like to know more about my camera settings? Or about this trip? Leave a comment or contact me through the contact form.