Spiekeroog - a small, cozy island in the North Sea. In winter it´s cold and empty, but very relaxing. In summer, however, it´s warm, crowded and exciting. We went to visit the island together with our great aunt at the end of August. It was her 12th time and even now she does not yet know every corner of this paradise.
On Saturday, after arriving at 10.30 and carrying our tent, sleeping bags, and rucksacks to the camping site, we decided to go for a walk along the beach. Upon crossing the dunes to get to the beach, we were a bit disappointed at first, because there was no nice, white beach, but rather a lot of wave breakers. As it was low water though, a lot of sailing boats were stranded on sand banks along the beach and this is where this beautiful photo was shot.
The sand was warm under our feet, its small grains getting stuck between our toes, the shells pinching in our soles. Is there any better feeling in the world? This part of the beach was almost empty, except for some lonesome strollers enjoying the late August sun. Reaching the touristy area of the beach, most of the beach chairs were occupied and kids were building sand castles in the sand. We crossed the dunes again to reach the villiage, where we came across a wedding party and a lot of day visitors and saturday island hoppers enjoying the beautiful weather. Spiekeroog has a permanent population of only 780 people, but in summer, it feels like this could be multiplied by 10, to account for the real number of people.
Afterwards we continued more towards the east of the island, past the Gymnasium into the dunes and further down to the beach. But only after climbing the highest hill on Spiekeroog. Which can in no way be compared to any hill you are probably thinking of. It is more like a small acumulation of sand that happens to be slightly higher than the other dunes. However, the view is still very nice - being able to see the whole island. On this side of the island the beach was completely empty again, with only a few ships sailing past.
Below are a few impressions of Spiekeroog that I happened to capture with my camera:
PS: Just a little advice, if you are thinking about visit Spiekeroog and staying at the camp site, bring a proper tent! A tent that withstands a storm. Our almost flew away with us in it on Saturday night during one of the biggest storms in the last years.
