List auf Sylt

Don't forget to click on the pictures to make them bigger, and scroll through!

After almost a full day of train rides, we made it to List auf Sylt.

We saw the scenery go through quite a drastic change.

This met us as we stepped off of the train:

We thought the sculptures were pretty cool, and funny.  Until we had been there for a while.  It was incredibly windy there.

The view on the bus ride from the train station to the hostel:

After we ate and got settled,  some of us took a walk and walked up on this:

A closer view:

I've never seen so many sheep!  Most of them appeared to be contained in a pasture, but this mama and her babies seemed to be roaming free. 

(The white dots in the picture are sheep.)

Some more views on our walk, just because it was really pretty...and different.

 Yes, we walked up all of those steps!

It was worth it...the view from the top was really pretty.

List from the top of the dune.

The boys got a little silly on the walk home:

The sunset was beautiful as we got back to the hostel...around 9:30 p.m.

The next morning, we took a bike ride to the beach.  Which meant we had to do a little more climbing to get to the top of a dune.

But once again, it was worth it.

We rode our bikes to the Harbor, which was a small area (compared to the touristy-beachy places we have in the USA) with shops and restaurants.

Outside of the restaurants, they have these chairs that you can sit in and get out of the wind.  They also have just the chairs on the beach:

And...you can buy one for as little as €1,400.  That would be around $1856.  Or, you can just rent one; but you need a reservation.

Or, you can buy a wall decal from Amazon starting at $29.99.  Then you can put stick it on a wall and pretend you're in Sylt.

There are over 11,000 of these on the island.

Our next adventure was a boat ride to see the seals.  

As we were on the ride, the boat people dropped the net to see what they could catch.  To pass the time, one of the boat people put the sealife in a bucket and did a "show and tell" with the passengers.

The women were not impressed.

We got to the seals.  Well, kind of.  If only we had binoculars!

When we got back to shore, it was time to eat.  

We ate at this restaurant a couple of times. It was kind of like a fast food restaurant:  you went to the counter and ordered, got your food after a couple of minutes, then went to the "bar" and ordered your drink.  Then you took your stuff outside to eat.  There were wait staff there to pick up your plates and trash.

We took a walk down the beach.

We saw some sunbathers (even though it wasn't even 65 degrees),

And some beautiful plants.

Our last day, we went for a walk in the Mudflats.  We had a National Park Ranger explain the sea life there.  The appropriate footware was a must, and the kids (and Ken) were stylin'!

 Notice how everybody has on jackets?  Yeah, it was pretty cold!  And, did I mention how windy it was?

The kids were very interested in what the Ranger (and his intern) had to say.

After some instruction, they went out into the mudflat on their own to see what they could find.

The view from the mudflat:

The buildings were a bit different here as well:

 Cool, huh?

I'm pretty sure I saw my vacation home on the bike ride into town!

The island of Sylt is in danger of being washed away into the North Sea.  To prevent this, they are "taking back the land".  In this picture, you can see the grids that have been put into the sea:

I'm not real sure how it works, but eventually the water diminishes and the grass grows, so it looks like this:

If you enlarge the picture (by left-clicking), you can see the grids.  The sheep are grazing on what used to be water.  

Just a few facts about Sylt (taken from http://en.sylt.de/sea/the-island.html and http://www.arrivalguides.com/en/Travelguides/Europe/Germany/SYLT)

~  Sylt is called "The German Hamptons".  It is a resort town where the wealthy spend vacations.  

~  Its latitude is the same as the southern-most tip of Alaska.

~  It became separated from the mainland 8000 years ago

~  It has 2 shifting sand dunes

~  Sylt is 33% sand dunes  

~  There are around 3000 free range sheep on the island

~  The wind blows on Sylt for about 99% of the days (that and the latitude explains the crappy weather!)

~  Sylt is pronounced "Zoolt"

I'm on the "homestretch" of the Germany part of my trip.  Tomorrow is The Hodgepodge hosted by Joyce.  Thursday & Friday will be the toughest posts I've written...the ones I've been putting off because of its content.  Looks like I'll be wrapping up Germany on Monday...or Tuesday!