May 26 2007
The Schiermonnikoog Adventure
Monday:
Weather was kinda questionable when we left. After a 2,5 hour drive which -after 9 years of visiting Schiermonnikoog- I know by heart, a 40 minute ferry transfer (stuffed with loud teens on schooltrips), a 10 minute bustrip, and then dragging luggage over the street to find our temporary holiday home we arrived… At first we couldn’t find the address only to find in the end that we had typically taken the long way ’round, bugger! We then went to the rental shop to get ourselves a bike, as it is the best way to get around the island and enjoy it?s 
nature and beauty. We got a tandem bike. These things always scare me when I see people trying to get around on them in some strange uncontrolable way. However, The Kid convinced me. I made a deal with the bike shop guy that we’d return it and get “real bikes” if it didn’t work out or we got tired of it. Bike shop guy told me I wouldn’t be back other than to return the tandem at the end of the week. He was right. Don’t cha hate it when guys are right? We stopped at the Visitors Center to book a trip on the EilandBalg -a short buslike carriage that is pulled over the beach by a tractor- and cycled a bit in the area of the holiday house. Then I crashed on the couch for an hour. I didn’t mean to, but I sat down and just fell asleep, tired from the trip to the island, I guess. As I didn’t feel like cooking we had dinner at one of the island hotels. I had the most scrumptious ly delicious fettucini with summer vegetables and The Kid had fries and bitterballen. We cycled around a bit after dinner, as the sky had cleared by then.
Tuesday:
We had kinda funny weather today like we did Monday. The sky looked like there could be terrential rain coming down any minute. We decide to wait it out for just a while and went to Hotel Duinzicht (where I usually stay with the department on our yearly visit) to use their wifi to check my email and let everyone know I would not be hooked up to any internet access for the next few days. We also booked a table for dinner on Wednesdayevening. We took our bike and cycled to the Noorderstrand. Weather was still the same, a strong wind and shivery but 
not too cold. It brought that special Schier-feeling that I am used to. We checked out some shops with purpose of spending the pocket money I gave The Kid to spend and in the evening I cooked dinner at the house. After dinner we cycled some more as the sun came out and it was beautiful outside. We cycled to the Wasserman bunker, which is the WWII bunker on the island and offers a beautiful panorama view. We then visited the cemetary “Vredenhof” for sailors and military victims from WWI and WWII that died on and around the island. The Kid was very impressed by the 19 and 20 year olds from WWII that were burried there and I told him a lot about the war when we were there. We also cycled to the Berkenplas. It’s the recreational pond at the island where you can canoe and stuff. It was quiet as it was already closed and when we were there a duck family with little ducklings took the opportunity to swim around the pond for a bit in all its serenity. I am guessing that during the day a lot of the schooltrip groups spend time there.
Wednesday:
We had to get up early for trip on the EilandBalg. The trip was a great succes. I had been wanting to take the trip for years now, but as I am always at the island with the department out of season, I had never been able to. The EilandBalg takes you to the very east of the island, which is hard to reach any other way, and we saw real life seals there. They 
approached us in the water up to about 4-5 meters from where we were standing. We found some great seashells as well (which are now stenching out the place at home) and had a great time. Trip took most of the morning. We had lunch at the sunny terrace of one of the other hotels there. While we were there I got a phonecall from my sister who told me they were pretty sure the sex of their unborn is a *bleep* (hey! I can’t disclose that over here, are you nuts?!) and then she broke the bad news: that very morning my mom’s best girlfriend had passed away. I immediately called my mum to talk to her and hear how she was doing. She had been to visit her girlfriend the night before and though she was very sad about her passing, she was very happy to have spent some time with her hours before she passed away. Then I sent the daughter of her girlfriend a txt message to send my condolences to both her and her brother. She replied that she thought that was very sweet (we haven’t seen eachother for over 20 years or so, but I still felt I should do it). The afternoon we spent cycling again on the tandem, a different route to the Badstrand (the bathing beach) and the Kobbeduinen (a beautiful wide flat dune-area). I kept thinking about my Mum, her girlfriend and her girlfriend’s kids, but fortunately The Kid had a blast at the beach, trying to sandmummify himself and wave-jumping. We both got sunburnt… a tad… a lot… ish… Our dinner at the hotel took my mind off things a little bit. I had a great meal and met up with many people working at the hotel that I’ve known for many years. I could even see the cooks staring into the restaurant from the windows in the kitchen doors!
Thursday:
We went for morning coffee at the hotel, hoping I’d run into the hotel owners wife, who is usually there at that time, but alas. She wasn’t. I talked to some more people I know thru my work-visits at the island. The owner of the hotel gave us two tickets for the open air swimming pool just in case we’d want to go there in the afternoon. We spent most of Thursday cycling all around the island. We’d done short parts of the total island cycling tour in the past days and had decided to cycle the complete tour today. About 15 minutes into the tour we were attacked by a ninja pheasant. She ran in front of our tandem wheels and was so shocked by me slamming on the breaks, that she got into a hissy fitt. The Kid almost freaked out until I told him that the pheasant was more scared of us than we were of her and she was probably defending her nest that was in the area. We cycled waaaaaaay a.r.o.u.n.d all pheasants we encountered for the rest of 
the tour. We saw all of the island and at the request of The Kid again spent about 1.5 hour at the Badstrand again, so he could do some more wavejumping! The cycling tour really opens my heart every time. I wasn’t into the Dutch Waddenislands that much, but over the years Schiermonnikoog has really grown on me and I can now safely say that I absolutely love it. During the cycling the only thing you can hear is birds, your bike-pedals and other than that… utter silence! In the midst of all that beautiful nature and the sun burning, and The Kid with me, I don’t think anything can make me any happier. On the way back I ran into the wife of the hotelowner afterall, and the former owner called to tell me that he couldn’t make it to the island afterall. Somehow he always seems to be in the area I live and work at when I am at the island! Bugger. Late afternoon we returned the bike to the rental shop. I had a good mind to wipe that “I told you so-smile” from the bike shop guy’s face, but I restrained myself. We had dinner at the holiday house, cleaned it and packed most of our stuff, as tomorrow we?re leaving!
Friday: we were up early, had breakfast, did some more packing and cleaning and then we were off. We dragged all luggage to the bus stop, the short way ?round this time. How is it that you always seem to leave with more than you came with on holiday, however short it is? We got on the 10.30 a.m. ferry, and after the drive back we arrived home at about 2.30 p.m. We had a great time and would’ve loved to stay longer, but it’s great to be back home too.
For those of you who want to see the story in pictures, click the FlickR badge at the right side of this post —> and go see the slideshow of our Schiermonnikoog vacation.
Sit back an relax, though. Get ready for it. There’s 60 pics in there… Enjoy!
I’ve almost completely re-surfaced… almost… I am getting there. Just returned from a great time on 
…
