North Holland - Den Helder - Texel

Den Helder
Den Helder is the North Western end of Holland and an important Navy, Fishing and Tall Ship port. We were here for 4 days as there was a lot to see. We moored in the harbour right in town and went for a walk. Today was the annual festival of music and there were lots of bands and groups of singers spaced out all over town as well as markets and food stalls. It was a great atmosphere.

The museum area is about 40 hectares and includes the Navy Maritime Museum and Sea Rescue Museum as well as many ships and a submarine to visit. We spent about 3 hrs in the National Redding Museum which is the Sea Rescue Dutch lifeboat service of the North Sea. Original lifeboats and equipment from 1847 to the present day helicopter rescue are on display. There are also many ships in the harbour alongside to visit. The museum is very interactive with many simulations such as a sea rescue in the North Sea where you stand on a ship’s deck which rocks and rolls underneath you and a very rough sea filmed on the wall. Positive sea sick stuff.

Another is in a tunnel simulation with original film of a sea rescue made when a Norwegian freighter ran into another ship in heavy fog. The tunnel is filled with fog and the first part is standing on the ship deck staring into the fog and next you see the side of the ship and feel and hear the grinding impact. Next part is the mayday call, the rough sea and the following commotion, then you move through as the sea rescue gets alongside in huge seas and starts the rescue with the crew jumping into a net on the top of the rescue boat. By the time we finished I felt all washed out and determined never to go to sea in fog and definitely not in the North Sea. We spent 3 hrs here and every minute was filled with something interesting.

Kevin and Arthur spent another afternoon at the Maritime museum climbing in and out of ships while Diana and I went shopping.

We also went by a huge car ferry to the island of Texel, about 10K offshore. For 10euro we got a return trip plus bike hire and reduced museum entrance. What a bargain compared to Rottnest.

Quite contrary to my previous remark of never going to sea in a fog, especially in the North Sea, the day we went turned out very windy and wet with a huge thunderstorm and some fog. However after getting our bikes we rode to the town some 6 K away.


All good fun and the weather made a good excuse to sit in the bar until it cleared over. As usual it is a small world, in the bar we met 6 Aussies from Perth over for a Real Estate conference in Amsterdam.

In August the 2008 Tall Ships race from Liverpool, England to Sweden and then finish in Den Helder so we have booked a hotel room to come back and see the finish.