The Mad Red Motherf**ker World Tour.
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Well, by the end of this post you're going to ask me how cold it was - around 1-1.5" I'd say...
So they've got this tradition in the Netherlands - a 'Nieuwjaarsduik'. And yes, this translates to New Year's Dive. First time for me.
Despite the beautiful looks, it was windy as fuck today, with outside temperatures of 8°C (46.4°F) and water temperatures of 6°C (42.8°F).
Here's me checking in. You get a lovely orange bobble hat for free:
The MRMF ready for action:
The view from the starting line:
Still smiling:
Waiting patiently for the start:
Too crowded to take picture of the action, so here's me afterwards:
Finally warmer clothing, the N1 is a better piece for the beach... Sign translates to 'fat seal'.
No MRMF was harmed during the making of this post!
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holy crab
that’s tough 
frohes Neues
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Legend
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I have warmed up a little... The weather is pretty bleak, though. Lots of rain, and very windy - up to 10 Bft tonight.
As the island is mainly below sea level, it is difficult to pump out all the water after longer periods of rain. A lot of paths are flooded.
One area is left flooded on purpose - where the sea broke trough the dunes centuries ago, and left a giant salt marsh:
We went to one of the museums today, a seal shelter and natural history museum.
Also on display - whales, which are washed up to the shore fairly regularly. New on display is the skeleton of a fin whale:
Bones of a blue whale:
Oh, and @Alex - that wouldn't have fit in the pot for the Three Penis Soup, right?
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@WhiskeySandwich thanks, man! Looking forward what you will do on your leg of the tour. Am I safe to assume some Easy Rider style action?
And is there anything I can try to sneak through customs for you? A small bottle of booze possibly? -
@tody LOL nope thanks though! haha idk it'll be cold but I'll try and get out on the bike and have my son or somebody snap some pics. Otherwise, I'll probably just be going about my daily biz. I don't want to disappoint, but I don't have any travel planned in the next few months. I'll try to capture some shenanigans though!
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@WhiskeySandwich @tody I can second the Josh Homme reference!! Rock star status big time!!
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Hell yeah. UHF ballad:
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Thanks guys - TBH, I had to look up Josh Homme as neither Kyuss nor QOTSA are my cup of tea.
(The guy I'm familiar with from these two bands would have been Nick Olivieri, now playing for the Dwarves and the Svetlanas.)Tomorrow will be our last day on the island, so we visited some landmarks today.
As I posted before, most of the island is below sea level. Nowadays they are using electric pumps, dumping the water out the other side of the dike:
In 1878, that was a completely different deal. They used a windmill to drive the pumps:
More landmarks - shipwrecks (probably a tiny bit more on this tomorrow) occurred regularly.
The 'Iron Cape' is a structure used for navigation in daylight:
During nighttime, you obviously need light. In a perfectly red lighthouse:
At this time of year, the lighthouse is open at nighttime, too.
That is not the distance to Gosport, more like Great Yarmouth:
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Another day, another windmill... This one is part of a museum, but still regularly in use for flour production.
The museum centers around the cultural and naval history of the island.
The Wadden side of the island was known as the Reede van Texel, a roadstead on the sheltered side, used for the long distance routes.
As many shipwrecks occurred, and as the Wadden Sea seems to protect the sunken ships very well, divers make spectacular finds every now and then.
The most recent and most spectacular find was the Palmwood Wreck, which included a silk dress from the early 17th century:
Texel was the starting point for long distance travel, and there was this dude Jacob Roggeveen who started here and discovered a totally different island on the other side of the world, on Easter Monday.
In the nineties, there was a cultural exchange between the two islands, and the best sculptor from Rapa Nui was invited to make Texel's own Moai.
Here it is, facing the Easter Island:
A final picture from the beach, we're off to Amsterdam tomorrow, and then back home.
