weekend by the sea

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know I spend a few days each year in spring on the dutch island Ameland with friends and this year was no exception!

(If you want to read up on the last few years, here’s 2013, 2012 and 2010)

Let’s go for a little picture tour, yes?

We went later than usual this year, since last year it was actually snowing and we wanted sunshine and warmth this time. The weather god smiled on us and we had glorious weather nearly every day.

We wandered and biked around the island, bought fresh fish and local eggs and had a wonderful time.

The island has such a variety of landscapes – beach, dunes, woods, flat fields – that I could spend days just biking across, stopping in a beach café now and then for the famous dutch fries and apple cake.

Even seeing these photos I want to turn right back and hop on the ferry again!

If you’re not tired of landscape shots yet there are some more stunning beach photos on my photo blog (such luck with the light one evening!) and I’ll be putting up one more landscape post on there in the next few days.

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a very late easter post

So sorry for disappearing for weeks and not even managing an Easter post! I have no idea where the time went, I meant for this post to go up right after Easter but then work and stuff got in the way and now it’s the middle of April already! I’ll try and be a better blogger, promise. And I can tease and tell you there’s a big announcement coming up pretty soon photography-wise.
But first, Easter weekend! I spent the long weekend on the beautiful dutch island Ameland with friends (yep, just like last year).
We were looking forward to a few days of rest and outdoor time and enjoyed every minute of it.


Even though the weather didn’t always cooperate (no, it still isn’t spring yet over here, yes, that is snow on the beach), we spent hours every day just walking the island, resting at the beach café’s every now and then for a nice slice of cake or some fries. Working inside most of the time makes me forget just how hungry some outdoor time makes.
Or how good it is for body and soul. Walking is a bit like yoga, you move your body while completely resting the mind with the added advantage of fresh air.



In the evenings we ate delicious home cooked dinners, mostly fish we had picked up fresh from the day’s fishing in the village, and settled down for some creative time. Somehow, between us four women, we worked on two sweaters, a pompom-rug and I knitted a tiny baby vest for my friend who is four months pregnant. To be shown here on the blog as soon as it’s washed and blocked and has some cute buttons added.




We even colored some eggs on Easter sunday before setting out again.



I have some more images from our beach trails up on my photoblog.
The rest and workout was much needed after the long winter and I’ve decided I really enjoy walking and hiking so I will try and find some nice trails in our surrounding areas to keep it up on weekends.
Now, wishing you a resting weekend!

easter weekend travel

I’m finally through with sorting about 2000 photos from our wonderful easter weekend trip to the dutch island Ameland in the North Sea. We (three girlfriends and I) spent three days there.
We got up at the crack of dawn on friday and drove a couple of hours to catch the ferry over.
Once arrived we found that it was raining softly but steadily. Nevertheless, we were there for the beach and so we set out on foot for the sea.

The beach is lovely in sunshine, but wild and beautiful in rain and storm and we didn’t regret venturing out in the rain.
This could well be the moon, couldn’t it?

We fought our way against the wind for a while before hiking back down the dunes and heading back towards the village we were staying in. Despite the rain and temperatures barely above zero we were warm from the exercise.

Back in our cozy little apartment we hung up the wet things to dry and settled down for a cup of tea and a hearty dinner, exhausted but happy.

The next day greeted with sunshine and we set out by bikes we had hired to the beach to watch a demonstration of the horse lifeboat being launched into the sea (here’s some more information if you’re interested).



Don’t be fooled by the blue sky in the photos though, we actually had hail for a couple of minutes during the demonstration!
We were cold from standing around in the icy wind, so next we biked over to the next big village. It is tour of about 10km one way, against the wind not a small ride for untrained (as in, not having ridden a bike in months) office girls like us.

The landscape is beautiful though and the exercise felt so good after the long winter months. Even though I was fighting for breath and starting to feel really sore, I felt better with each mile. I guess I hadn’t realized how much pent up emotions from the last few months I needed to get out of my system.
On the way back to our village we took a long break in the dunes and did some photoshoots in the sunshine. The first one of my friend in her wedding dress is already up on my Photo Blog. I’ll let you know when the next ones are up.
After the approximately 30 km we had biked that day we were wiped out and watched the sunset on the beach, heading to a sheltered beach cafè once it got too cold.




On Sunday (our last full day) we decided to just take it slowly, so we slept in and then headed to the dunes to find a place out of the wind and in the sun to read and relax.

After a treat of cake and hot chocolate at the beach cafè (otherwise we ate and cooked very healthy, promise) we stayed to watch the locals light their easter bonfire on the beach. We had some very good, hot mulled wine and headed home sleepy on our bikes.

Since it was raining on Monday anyway we didn’t feel too badly about leaving and caught the ferry at midday to be back home by evening.
Only three days by the sea, but it felt like a couple of weeks worth of good on body and soul.

For more beach and landscape photos there’s a whole post on that on my photo blog!

ameland part 3

Okay, I vaguely remember promising sunset photos 😉 So here comes the third installment of Ameland photos.
First of all, some wildlife: there are thousands of birds on the island, mostly sea-gulls. Large areas of the island serve as nature reserve and are pretty much left alone.

While the days were sunny, the dew in the morning made for some nice photos too (this one was taken with my Macro Snap-on lens Raynox DCR-250):

The island was so deserted that we hardly met any people at all. It is amazing how fast you get used to this quiet. When we even went to a beach cafe where there were people and especially on the way home on the highway it was a total culture shock!

This buddy lived at the place where we were staying (highly recommendable by the way) and made it very clear he was used to coming inside and treated like a Prince. This is his ‘Are you thick? Go on open the door’ look.

Ok, here’s the sunset photos at last! I took so many and it was hard to narrow them down. I still cannot decide which of these two would be better for the shop? I’d love to hear your suggestions on that!
number 1

or number 2?

The technical data for these are: Canon 450d, 50mm 1.4, f22, ISO100, manual metering, shutter speed between 1.3 and 2 seconds and I used a tripod (obviously).
After the sunset we hurried up to the dunes to photograph the lighthouse. It actually gets dark very quickly once the sun has set and when you’re standing on an empty beach all alone and the lights on your bike don’t work it’s kinda creepy. We pretty much hurried home after a few shots.

And here’s the last one, another sunset on a different day and a different beach. We almost stayed home because it was cloudy and we were tired and it was freezing…but boy, was it worth it!

You can’t see it in this photo but there was a seal swimming and hunting mere meters away from us in the water! We’d see his head popping up now and then, he was probably wondering what the two girls were doing, just standing there for 45mins in the cold on a deserted beach 😉

ameland – part 2

Ok, here’s the second installment of Ameland photos. These are from our second day here, enjoy!
We went to the village Nes and booked a tour to see the seals which live between the Wadden Sea and the North Sea.
These little dutch villages are full of pretty old houses and typical dutch decor.


Onboard the boat

On our way to see the seals we saw many small fishing boats like these. They were being followed by hundreds of sea-gulls, hoping for fish.

The seals live in the water near the islands. At high tide they swim and hunt but at low tide sand banks appear where they lie down in the sun and rest.

There are lots of sheep on the island as well and at every turn you can see the cutest little lambs jumping and running about.

I’ll close with another beach shot. We’re leaving for home tomorrow but there’ll be at least 2 more installments with pretty pictures over the next few days. We had an amazing sunset yesterday and shot some pretty awesome photos, but hey, gotta save the best for last right?

ameland – part 1

Hi everyone! Just a short hello from Ameland, a beautiful little island in the Netherlands, which separates the Wadden Sea from the North Sea.
We (my friend Dana and I) left on Monday at 5am and arrived at the harbour in time to catch the 9.30am ferry. The ferry takes about 30-45mins to Ameland and then another 15min bus ride to the little village where we are staying.
We’ve had lots of sunshine, great food and lots to see so far and are enjoying every minute of our stay!
Here are some impressions of our first day:

The lighthouse, the islands most impressive landmark. We will be trying to get a good night shot of this (Dana brought a tripod, yay).

The beach at low tide (this is the North Sea side. We haven’t yet been to the Wadden Sea on foot but it’s on the agenda today). I have until now resisted the temptation of buying a pair of brighty chequered wellis, though I did splurge on some souvenirs.

I just like the colors in this one. See the amazing blue sky we had the first day!

Say cheese! We visited a cheesemaker and asked if we could see their workrooms. We are here out of season, so there is literally no one on the island except the inhabitants and so they allowed it!

I can’t even begin to describe how delicious these homemade cheeses are! We bought different types and are feasting like kings!

We left the car on the mainland and are getting around on bikes here (everyone in Holland owns a bike). Lots of fun, but we rode around so much that first day that we were really sore and had to take a break from the bikes yesterday. ‘Fietspad’ means bike path and in the background you can see the grass dunes which lie before the sand dunes on the beach.

Enjoying the evening light at the beach.

Sunset at the beach. We had originally planned to photograph until the sun really went down, but with the wind picking up and the sun losing its strength it was just freezing and we had to head home earlier. We’re hoping for another beautiful clear sunset tonight.
Hope you enjoyed these and stay tuned for pictures of quaint dutch houses, fishing boats and seals coming soon!