Since we never had been at those islands and went to see our
family living in Holland we decided to visit Terschelling, one of the Wadden
islands in the north of Holland. It’s famous for its birdlife and Nature. Since
June 2009 the Wadden Sea is also a World Heritage site.
The Wadden Sea World Heritage Site encompasses the Dutch and
German parts of the sea. It covers an area of almost 10,000 square kilometers
along a coastal strip about 400 kilometers long.
It has many different kinds of habitat and therefore offers
a home to many plant and animal species. More than 10,000 species of
terrestrial and aquatic animals, from single-celled organisms to fishes, birds
and mammals, can be found. Every year as many as 10 to 12 million migrating
birds on their way from their breeding areas in Siberia, Canada or Scandinavia
to their wintering grounds in West Europe and Africa stop over in the Wadden
Area for short or extended periods. Only here will they find enough food to
complete their journey of thousands of kilometers.
The Wadden Sea is unique in the whole world in demonstrating
how nature, plants and animals adapt themselves to constantly changing
conditions in an area where fresh water (from land) and salt water (from the
ocean) meet. The continuous interplay between wind, sand and tides in the
Wadden Sea has created an incredible range of plants and animals specially
adapted to cope with these changes. This huge variety is the magnificent result
of natural processes that have been at play since the last Ice Age.
We arrived after an hour train ride at Harlingen harbor,
went straight to the ferry and it took two hours to the harbor at Terschelling
where the Brandaris (Lighthouse) is dominating the coastline. We first went to
get our bicycles since this is the main transport here. Cars are allowed but
most people are renting bikes and this is anyway the best way to explore the
island. While we were cycling along the dike and seeing so many different shore
birds the company where we rented our bicycles dropped our luggage at our
accommodation. The weather was superb: sunny and a good temperature around 27
C. Sheep were everywhere but soon we saw Frisian cows as well as farm houses.
Lots of people are cycling, but still it’s less jammed and
crowded than when you go by car and there is no pollution. I had an electric
bike and that was great when you had to cycle uphill or against strong wind. My
hubby had a normal gear bike and often I waived to him while passing him with a
smile and he had to use all his power to make some speed.
The island is a so beautiful, with nice cycling paths
through the forest while the heather was blooming and it was so pretty to see
the purple colors between forests green. Also long grasses were getting their
autumn colors and we enjoyed watching birds at the lakes and saw at least 4 or
5 different species. Flocks of geese were taking off and flying in formation. Famous
Frisian horses were grazing once at a lake and I took lots of photographs.
For tea we stopped at a farmhouse were you could get yummy
cranberry cheesecake, cranberry tea or lemonade but also the cranberry wine was
so good!
The island is famous for its cranberry and this was because
of a ship in 1840 had lost a barrel and the people that found it thought that
something of value was in the barrel. Therefore they rolled the barrel over
first row of dunes, to ensure that they were now the owners. When they opened
it they found cranberry and thinking that these berries were worthless, threw the
barrel in the bushes. After some time the berries started sprouting and soon
the whole area was full of cranberry bushes. Since they didn’t know what to do
they used it for tea, eating it and making wine, lemonade, jams etc. and it
became famous and now its one of the main money making businesses on this
island.
The whole week we were so lucky with the weather and only
the last two days we had a bit of rain but the temperature was still good for
cycling.
Our holiday came to an end and we packed, phoned the company
where we rented our bikes to pick up our luggage.
We cycled back on the dike and birds, sheep everywere and
after an hour we were at the ferry to return the bikes and collect our luggage.
Went straight to the ferry and after two hours we arrived at the harbor, took
the train and went back home with good memories.
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