Schiermonnikoog beach

We enjoyed a daytrip to the island of Schiermonnikoog yesterday. It's still unusually warm here, and it felt like a Summer day. Autumn seems far away!

Schiermonnikoog is known for its wide beaches, and even more because it was low tide when this photo was taken.

Beach view

View on the beach and North Sea from one of the beach restaurants near Callantsoog. I like the birds that were placed there next to the tables, all shaped from wire. And how about that rain shower in the distance! We kept it dry though - the rain didn't come ashore.

Low tide

I really liked this reflection pattern on the North Sea beach at low tide. Photo taken a few weeks ago near Callantsoog.

Contributing to All Seasons.

Weekend reflections

Another one from the North Sea beach near Callantsoog, last weekend. I'm linking to Weekend Reflections.

Beach restaurant

The walls and even the ceiling of this beach restaurant near Callantsoog were filled with "sea things" and other stuff.

Fish was swimming everywhere ;)

Colourful art near the entrance stairs of the restaurant.

Callantsoog beach

At the North Sea beach near the village of Callantsoog last weekend. Dark skies behind us but we were lucky to see the clouds pass us without rain :)

I'm linking to All Seasons.

At the Danish westcoast

After an early morning arrival by ferry in the north of Denmark we drove a beautiful route along the westcoast..

.. stopped for coffee at a roadside restaurant..

.. and had a look at the beach. There was a lot of wind that day!

At the North Sea coast

Before we visited the Keukenhof Monday a week ago we spent a day at the North Sea coast at Noordwijk aan Zee. The weather was more than perfect to be at the beach, it was warm and sunny and it felt like Summer; lots of people were sunbathing and some even went swimming in the sea. This photo was made when the tide was getting high; of course the sand castles that were built earlier had to be reinforced!

I'm linking to All Seasons.

Knokke sea-boulevard

No doubt crowded with people during the Summer, the sea-boulevard in Knokke was deserted on the sunny though windy November day when we were there. Knokke is the most north-eastern seaside resort on the Belgian coast.

Art at the coast

Wood sculptures at the Belgian coast, near Knokke.

Both photos were taken last November when we visited Het Zwin nature area. These sculptures were near the bronze artwork Running Hare that I showed earlier.

Enjoy your weekend :)

The fisherman's bicycle

The main function of bicycles is to take you from A to B of course. They can also carry a lot of stuff, like your (sea)fishing gear to the beach.
I didn't manage to catch the fisherman on camera..

Curved edge

Most people who are on the beach walk near the sea line, where the sand is hard and it's easier to walk. We do too, though I'm glad that this time we chose this route, because otherwise we would have missed this beautifully shaped edge! Apparently there has been a water stream here that caused the difference in height and made these half-round curves.

Wide, wider, widest

 The beaches of Schiermonnikoog are among the widest in Europe. Even though it was nearly high tide yesterday when we arrived at the most western point of the island, the beach was so wide that we couldn´t even spot the sea. Isn´t that amazing?

I´m linking to All Seasons.

Sailing on the beach

With a sunny day ahead we took the ferry to the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog this morning at 9:30 am to make a day hike. And what a nice day we had!

A big part of our hike was on the North Sea beach. We watched this group for a while 'sailing' on the sand. The small vehicles reached quite some speed!

Abandoned

I´m no member of the City Daily Photoblog community, but when I noticed on several blogs that today´s theme is 'abandoned' this photo immediately came into mind. We found this tiny plastic pink mould left on the Texel beach a couple of weeks ago.
Who knows how many foot-shaped sand cakes have been baked with it this Summer..

Directions

 At the top of the North Sea beach near De Koog village, on the island of Texel. The signs (mainly) point to a number of beach restaurants.

I'm linking to signs, signs.

Texel beach

 We spent the past few days on the Dutch island of Texel, hence the blogging break :) This photo was taken yesterday at the North Sea Beach, just south of the Slufter Nature Area.

Hot day

 We had another hot day today with blazing sun, apparently the hottest 13th of September in Dutch history: about 32°C (89,6°F)!!  I wish I´d been at the beach today and cool my feet in the seawater, but that wasn´t the case :)
This photo was taken a few weeks ago and shows the North Sea coast near Zandvoort.

I'm linking to Seasons.  

Beach huts

Zandvoort has a popular bathing beach, and walking along the boulevard we passed these beach huts located just below the dunes in two long rows. They seem quite spacious and luxury with the solar panels on the roofs!

Washed ashore

There was hardly a better way to start the week yesterday morning than with a long walk on the beach underneath the blue Summer sky. It was low tide and we found loads of these Atlantic jackknife clams, in Dutch known as 'zwaardschedes' or 'scheermessen'.