Back from Schiermonnikoog

Last week we were on vacation. We went to an island called Schiermonnikoog. It's the most northern part of the Netherlands and not far from where we live.

There are no cars allowed on the island so we took our bicycles. At the start of the week it wasn't very warm. We had some rain at night and in the morning but in the afternoon we could go out and explore.

It was Bertus' first time to the seaside so we took him straight away to see the North sea and the beach. (on the photo above you can see Bertus having a close encounter with a seagull) It was very windy but that didn't mind a bit. In the evenings Ward went with me biking through the dunes. On one of the first evenings we went to the west coast of Schiermonnikoog to view the Wad. The sun was carefully shining through the grey clouds and it was low tide. On the horizon we could see Ameland, the island next door. It was beautiful, Ward kept on telling me how wonderful everything was. And he was right!

During the day I biked across the island solo. Mostly to find an interesting spot where I could sit and paint. I rarely paint, but on vacation I like to pick up my brushes and dust of my watercolour palette. This is one of the things I made:

On Thursday morning Jeroen took Ward and Bertus for a walk in the forrest.

According to the photo's they took and the stories they told they had a great time. Bertus wanted to do most of the walking by himself. Up the dunes and down the dunes again.

Ward and I also went to the beach one afternoon to find some cockles. Ward found out a really good way to find them in the sand. Soon our little bucket was filled. That evening we had pasta with cockles on our plates. It was very nice. Bertus wanted to eat them all!

On Friday it was warm but very windy. We went to the beach again. The wind by the sea was to cold for Bertus. But we found a small puddle closer to the dunes with some warm water in it. Bertus had the time of his life! He had so much fun in the dirty sand...

The next day we had to go home (today). It's always a little bit sad to leave Schiermonnikoog. No cars, no computer, no work to be done, no television (although we had one in our small house)... Just nature, books, paint and each other.

More photo's of our stay on Schiermonnikoog are on my Flickr photo stream.