Sylt, the island of the rich and beautiful. They come here to “see and be seen”, don’t dare show up in any clothing without fancy designer labels on them, and don’t leave the Porsche at home !

There is List in the north, still rather quiet and peaceful, Kampen for the jet set, flashy and famous, Westerland for the party & crowds. Keitum and Hornum in the less visited south. This island has 20’000 inhabitants and the unbelievable number of 850’000 guests ! Yet still, there are lots of gorgeous beaches, dunes and quiet places to be discovered, just leave the towns behind you, and get some fresh sea air !

Sylt, oh Gosch ! No, this is not a spelling mistake, it’s the name of a chain of fish restaurants. If you go to Sylt you have to go there, it has some sort of cult status. Started of as a small beach-bar, nowadays they are at every stategical point, and in every town on the island.

It is actually just a fast food restaurant, but the northernmost fish eatery in all of Germany ! So we went and stayed all evening, finished a couple of bottles of white whine, and ate fish !

The next day , back to serious tourist business : we went for a guided walk in the Watten Sea, that is the part of the shoreline that shows up at low tide. Right here it’s quite a large stretch of land since the coast slopes very gradually around this side of the island. We learnt about the tides and snails and shells and oysters whilst walking about in our gum boots. Good fun !

From there to “the Elbow” the northernmost peninsula on the island and a nature reserve. There are endless beaches, dunes, lighthouses, seagulls flying over our heads and  the sun is on our faces. Its 28°C today, and our feet are in the 21°C warm water, this is very exceptional…. if you consider Sylt is at the same latitude Moscow is on !

We had a wonderful dinner in a 200 year old, family run, fish restaurant, called Alter Gasthof, where we had some really good fish and lobster.  After a good nights sleep, we were ready for more sightseeing, so the next day we rented electro bikes. I was very ashamed of myself, consider this something for very unfit old people, not for young sportstypes like us who bike for hours, without help and in the mountains….but I must say they came in handy. Boy it blows here ! And we were lucky and had really good weather and just average wind ! It almost swept me of the road, it’s flat here, and somehow the wind is always head on, so I gladly used my little motor !

I’ve wanted to go to Sylt for ages. The island of the rich and beautiful, sweeping beaches, dunes, and those beach chairs…..I just love them, and it is said they have dozens here. Turns out it’s a little more then dozens, they have 12’000 of them on the island ! Most beaches on the westside have them, and you rent them for about 10 Euro a day. The most beautiful and scenic beach was at Kampen. There are sandcliffs, on top of which are the most splendid houses, with matching gardens, down the cliffs an almost white beach with my beloved beach chairs scattered all over. The main town of Westerland is too cramped, overfilled and touristy for my liking, but that is my personal opinion, it seemed to be well liked ! Here are some of my favourite shots.

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