Schiermonnikoog
Schiermonnikoog
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Riding to the ferry - Sunday 3rd June
On the way I stopped at Dokkum, one of the 11, which was once a fortified town and is still in parts walled and moated. The English missionary St Boniface and 52 of his companions were murdered there in 754.
I left Anjum early in the morning to get the first ferry from Lauwersoog, over to Schiermonnikoog. When I arrived it was still early and, as the tide was out and the mud flats of the Wadden Sea where clearly visible. It looked beautiful, eerie and mysterious. I had read that Wadloppen (mud walking) was popular and at low tide it is possible, with a guide, to walk to other islands. Of course Lucy had to participate and rather than coming on the ferry she walked across.
Schiermonnikoog is the smallest of the Frisian islands, with one village of the same name. It is about 10 miles long and 2.5 wide and is wild and beautiful. Bibi spent her holidays there, every year until she was 18, at her grandparents cottage near the lighthouse. While I was there we were emailing each other quite frequently and she gave me tips of things to do and said she was living the visit with me.
Hire bikes waiting for tourists to ride them on the island
Sunday 3rd June - Wednesday 6th June 2018
Riding to the ferry - Sunday 3rd June
I cycled through the NE of Freyslân to Anjum where I spent the night before getting an early morning ferry to the little Fresian island, Schiermonnikoog, which lies off the N coast in the Wadden Sea. As I rode along, Lucy was proudly wearing her new jersey and showed it to everyone that she saw. Even the cows came across to admire it.
On the way I stopped at Dokkum, one of the 11, which was once a fortified town and is still in parts walled and moated. The English missionary St Boniface and 52 of his companions were murdered there in 754.
Two nights on Schiermonnikoog
Monday 4th - Wednesday 6th June
I left Anjum early in the morning to get the first ferry from Lauwersoog, over to Schiermonnikoog. When I arrived it was still early and, as the tide was out and the mud flats of the Wadden Sea where clearly visible. It looked beautiful, eerie and mysterious. I had read that Wadloppen (mud walking) was popular and at low tide it is possible, with a guide, to walk to other islands. Of course Lucy had to participate and rather than coming on the ferry she walked across.
Schiermonnikoog is the smallest of the Frisian islands, with one village of the same name. It is about 10 miles long and 2.5 wide and is wild and beautiful. Bibi spent her holidays there, every year until she was 18, at her grandparents cottage near the lighthouse. While I was there we were emailing each other quite frequently and she gave me tips of things to do and said she was living the visit with me.
Hire bikes waiting for tourists to ride them on the island
Visitors are not permitted to take vehicles onto the island and there were hundreds of bicycles to hire where the ferry docked. It was really interesting to to see how people carried their luggage: in hand carts, piled high and tied to bicycles, pulled on skate boards, and I even saw one person cycling off the ferry one-handed and pulling his suitcase on wheels with the other hand. There were electric powered buses waiting to take people without bikes about two miles to the village.
The sun came out and I went for a ride along some of the cycle paths that crisscross the island. They are are gleaming white and made of crushed sea shells. Then I made my way to the village, found my room and went to explore further. As in the Leeuwarden post, I am just going to describe some of the things I saw and did while I was there.
Bezoekerscentrum (Visitor’s Centre)
I went to the Besoekerscentrum and saw two exhibitions. One about the history of the island, bird life, and the Nationaal Park. And one about the art of camouflage in nature. I learnt that Schiermonnikoog means ‘island of the grey monks’ (schier - grey, monnik- monk, oog - island) and Lucy tried her hand at the art of animal camouflage.
And also she thought we were back home when she saw a sign for a holiday farm. If only......
The lighthouse
I walked to the beach along the Badweg, the road where Bibi’s grand parents had their cottage and then went up to the lighthouse which was built in 1853. The cottage is no longer there and there are a lot of fairly new houses along that road, although there are still some older ones near the lighthouse.
The Westerplas
I cycled to look at this nature reserve, which until 1960 was a salt marsh. It has since been closed off from the sea and the salt water gradually turned into a fresh water pool which is home a huge variety of water birds. There were hundreds of Eurasian widgeons, oyster catchers, grey geese and many more.
At one point I thought there were sheep in a field, but they weren’t, they were huge geese. There are also lots of different wild flowers including rare orchids.
The marshy area to the west of the Westerplas is grazed by horses to prevent it from becoming overgrown.
From a distance I thought they were sheep
Schiermonnikoog Village
The village was a real surprise and I spent a lot of time there enjoying the car-free streets, elegant buildings, wide grassy parks and tree lined avenues. The first houses of the new village were built around 1720. It is so peaceful and elegant.
Bibi told me that I should try some local delicacies, smoked paling (eel), salted herrings with onions and suikerbrood (sugar loaf).
Lucy plucked up courage to try salted herring and onions, but as you can see she wasn’t sure about it. But she loved the suikerbrood.
Wednesday 6th June
It was a lovely morning so I had a last look around and had a leisurely ride to the ferry where I chatted to a cycle dealer from Amsterdam who admired my Dawes and wanted to know all about it.
While I was chatting Lucy looked at the sea and said goodbye to Schiermonnikoog
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