Isle of Vlieland

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Yes. And then I was home sweet home as they like to call it, back in Holland.
After a quick and uneventful leave from China, I have returned home and done my visits around the family and friends. Economic recession aside, a job presented itself within a week, so after 9 days in Frisia, I am back on the islands working in the local hotels.
This time around not on the isle of Terschelling, but the one on the west side of it; The isle of Vlieland.

To come back on the issue of China; I had wanted to make a final blog on my leaving, but unfortunately my external hard drive broke, with it I lost a lot of data, including photo's. Fingers crossed, it can be fixed.
Although really needed a break from China and happy to go home, it has been an experience and certain things of my time in China I will never forget. Who knows when I'll be back..?!

The isle of Vlieland is the second smallest of the five wadden islands.
One half of the island, the east, is green and is largely covered in forest and heath.
The other half in the west is just a large area of sand, in the past used by the military for exercises, and in recent years by the Dutch airforce to drop a bomb here and there.
Still now, you can hear loud bangs and during the week this section of the island is off limits.
An interesting fact; The isle of Vlieland has just one town: Oost Vlieland (East Vlieland).
There used to be a town on the west side as well, but in 1735 this was taken away by the ocean.

All 5 Wadden islands are continuously changing shape, due to wind and sea erosion.
Whereas the west sides of the islands tend to loose land, the east sides gain land by sand deposits from sea swells.
Two of the islands are car-free, Vlieland is not one of them surprisingly, because of its small size.

I intend to be here for the summer period and after that I'm thinking about heading to Canada for a year.
I'm not sure yet, its just an idea at this time.
For people interested in working on the islands, there are a lot of summerjobs, and agencies hire internationals. At the moment there are Indonesian interns, German students, Polish workers and even a few British strays. Quite a nice international mix I reckon.

Till next time!

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Photos

Scottish highlander
These big beasts do very well in Dutch nature reserves

North of Vlieland island
The yellow truck takes visitors around the island on a seal watching tour

Comments

[maarten]

schoonheid of nederland;)
tjonge ... mooie foto's moet ik zeggen ...) je hoeft niet naar buiteland -p) krijg ik bay the way any reply on my mail -p) hoe gaat het met je external hard drive ? kun je het fixen ? good luck for now on the dutch isles and we will soon hook up for a beer or two ) ciao maarten en julia.