Island ferry

Back at the ferry at the end of the afternoon.

It takes about 40 minutes to the Lauwersoog harbour on the mainland.

Schiermonnikoog village

The island of Schiermonnikoog has one village, also named Schiermonnikoog.

Cattle farm

Yesterday I showed you the North Sea side and beach of the island of Schiermonnikoog, today a view from the dike along the Wadden Sea side, that has several cattle farms.

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.

Shrimpcutter TM26

This photo was taken from the ferry that took us from Schiermonnikoog back to Lauwersoog at the mainland, last Sunday. Just before arriving at the Lauwersoog harbour this boat went by, giving us a pretty view in the late afternoon sun.

Wondering what ´TM26´ meant I googled and found out that the letters TM stand for Termunterzijl, a small village in the north of the Netherlands. The number 26 seems sequential.
It´s originally a shrimpcutter named MEEUW ('SEAGULL'), built in 1911 in the Groninger village of Oude Pekela. It was motorized in 1928, claimed by the Germans during WW2, and from 1971 used for sport fishing and other recreational purposes. In 1988 the cutter was completely renovated.

I'm linking to Weekend Reflections.

Sea-buckthorn

Very common on the Dutch islands, so also on Schiermonnikoog, is this plant with its small and bright orange berries called sea-buckthorn ('duindoorn' in Dutch). It's native to fixed dunes and sea cliffs in Europe and Asia.

The berries are a favourite 'dish' for many migrating birds, that pass the island at the same time that the berries are ripe.
I also read that especially in France sea-buckthorn is commonly sold as fruit juice or as an ingredient in non-alcoholic and alcoholic mixed beverages. Other uses include the berries to be processed as fruit wine or into liquor as well as jam. They have a very high vitamin C content, on average exceeding that of lemons and oranges. (info from Wikipedia HERE). Isn't that interesting, I don't recall though having seen jam or fruit juice made from sea-buckthorn..  have you?

I'm linking to Floral Friday Fotos.

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.

An island path

Although Schiermonnikoog is relatively small (about 200 km²), the island has many different landscapes: beach, dunes, woods, salt marshes and tidal flats. The thought is that this nature belongs to us all, and therefor much of it is open and accessible to the public. Only during the breeding season some paths are closed so birds are not disturbed.
Here we are on our way to the wide beach that I showed you yesterday.

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!

Flooded

The word 'fietspad' is Dutch for 'bicycle path'. Ehm....maybe for pedal boats?  ;)
I took this photo on the island of Schiermonnikoog, earlier this month.

Linking to Lesley's signs, signs.

Schiermonnikoog sheep

A flock of black-headed sheep on top of a dike in Schiermonnikoog, at the Wadden Sea side of the island.

I´m linking to Saturday´s critters.

The red lighthouse

A green door in a 44 meter high red tower: this is the entrance of the Schiermonnikoog lighthouse. We have never had a peak inside though as the lighthouse is not open for visitors.

Schiermonnikoog village (2)

 Two more views from typical Dutch homes that you find in Schiermonnikoog village.

Schiermonnikoog village

The island of Schiermonnikoog has one village, also named Schiermonnikoog with just over 900 inhabitants. The oldest houses date from the early 18th century. Whenever we visit the island and the beach, we also enjoy wandering around the streets and footpaths. Even in the grey and gloomy weather that we had last Sunday! :)

More to follow tomorrow.

Sea fishing

During our walk on the beach of Schiermonnikoog we saw these two fishermen constantly busy replacing and preparing their fishing-rods..

..while they probably better should have moved their 2 chairs and parasol to dry sand..

St Egbert chapel

The Roman Catholic St Egbert chapel at the Badweg on the island of Schiermonnikoog was built in 1915 in a rationalism architectural style. It then belonged to a children´s colony home next to the chapel, also called St Egbert. Here so-called 'bleekneusjes' (lit.: 'whitenoses'), meaning children who were weakened by war, malnutrition, or medical reasons, could get stronger during a period of 6 weeks.

The chapel is in its original state and is still in use today. The building was declared a national monument.

Beacon Kobbeduinen

The Beacon Kobbeduinen on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog is a marker for ships that sail on the Wadden Sea. This is a picture from this morning; arriving on the island with the 9:30 ferry this was the first thing we headed for on our hike. As you can see, the sun was just coming through the clouds. I may have posted photos from the beacon before but it is really a nice spot.

The wooden beacon is located at the edge of the National Park Schiermonnikoog. The word Kobbe is related to Kove which means 'seagull', and the Dutch word duinen means 'dunes' in English.

No.5

Somebody hung a heart at beach-pole no.5. Spotted along the North Sea coast of Schiermonnikoog.