Theme Week Scotland

14 May 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks Reading Time:  4 minutes

Welcome to Scotland sign - A1 road © flickr.com - Amanda Slater/cc-by-sa-2.0

Welcome to Scotland sign – A1 road © flickr.com – Amanda Slater/cc-by-sa-2.0

Scotland is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the south-west. In addition to the mainland, Scotland is made up of more than 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides. Edinburgh, the country’s capital and second-largest city, is one of Europe’s largest financial centres. Edinburgh was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, was once one of the world’s leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe’s oil capital.   read more…

Husum, the gray city by the sea

20 April 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Husum Harbour © Colocho/cc-by-sa-3.0

Husum Harbour © Colocho/cc-by-sa-3.0

Husum is the capital of the district of Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein. The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet “the grey town by the sea”. It is also the home of the annual international piano festival Raritäten der Klaviermusik (Rarities of Piano Music) founded in 1986. Like most towns on the North Sea, Husum was ever strongly influenced by storm tides. In 1362 a disastrous storm tide, the Grote Mandrenke flooded the town and carved out the inland harbour. Before this date Husum was not situated directly on the coast. The people of the city took advantage of this opportunity and built a marketplace, which led to a great economic upturn.   read more…

The gas production platform Sea Troll in the North Sea

1 March 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month Reading Time:  10 minutes

Troll A Platform from South-East © Swinsto101/cc-by-sa-3.0

Troll A Platform from South-East © Swinsto101/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Troll A platform is a condeep offshore natural gas platform in the Troll gas field off the west coast of Norway. It is the tallest structure that has ever been moved to another position, relative to the surface of the Earth, and is among the largest and most complex engineering projects in history. The platform was a televised sensation when it was towed into the North Sea in 1996, where it is now operated by Statoil.   read more…

Theme Week East Frisian Islands – Borkum and Juist

21 February 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Juist - Aerial view © Bin im Garten

Juist – Aerial view © Bin im Garten


JUIST

Juist is one of the seven inhabited East Frisian Islands at the edge of the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea in the southern North Sea, located between Borkum Island (west), Memmert Island (southwest) and Norderney (east). It is also a municipality in the district of Aurich in Lower Saxony in Germany.   read more…

Theme Week East Frisian Islands – Baltrum and Norderney

5 February 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  12 minutes

Baltrum - Aerial view © Huebi

Baltrum – Aerial view © Huebi

BALTRUM

Baltrum is a barrier island off the coast of East Frisia and is a municipality in the district of Aurich, Lower Saxony. It is located in-between the chain of the seven inhabited East Frisian Islands. Baltrum is the smallest island in this chain by area and inhabitans.   read more…

The island of Karmøy in Norway

13 March 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Høyevarde lighthouse © flickr.com - Michael Spiller/cc-by-sa-2.0

Høyevarde lighthouse © flickr.com – Michael Spiller/cc-by-sa-2.0

Karmøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located southwest of the city of Haugesund in the traditional district of Haugaland. Karmøy was created as a new municipality on 1 January 1965 after the merger of Kopervik (city), Skudeneshavn (city), Skudenes, Stangaland, Torvastad, Åkra, and most of Avaldsnes. The Karmsund strait was also the source of the name of the kingdom, at the time when the first king of the unified Norway, Harald Fairhair, lived on Karmøy. (See History of Norway.)   read more…

Felixstowe, the largest container port in the UK

4 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Felixstowe Old Train Station, today housing several stores and the local community radio station © Deben Dave/cc-by-sa-3.0

Felixstowe Old Train Station, today housing several stores and the local community radio station © Deben Dave/cc-by-sa-3.0

Felixstowe is a seaside town on the North Sea coast of Suffolk. The town gives its name to the nearby Port of Felixstowe, which is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. The town is situated across the estuary of the River Orwell and the River Stour from Harwich in Essex.   read more…

Scarborough, holidays on the North Sea coast

7 January 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Scarborough Castle © Immanuel Giel

Scarborough Castle © Immanuel Giel

Scarborough is a town on the North Sea coast of North Yorkshire in England, within the borough of the same name. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, the modern town lies between 10-230 feet (3-70 m) above sea level, rising steeply northward and westward from the harbour onto limestone cliffs. The older part of the town lies around the harbour and is protected by a rocky headland. It is one of the largest settlements in North Yorkshire.   read more…

Theme Week North Frisian Islands – Sylt

17 August 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Robby Naish during the Surf World Cup Sylt © Hoch Zwei

Robby Naish during the Surf World Cup Sylt © Hoch Zwei

Sylt is the northernmost island of Germany, known for its tourist resorts, notably Westerland, Kampen and Wenningstedt-Braderup, as well as for its 40 km long sandy beach. It is frequently covered by the media in connection with its exposed situation in the North Sea and its ongoing loss of land during storm tides. Since 1927, Sylt has been connected to the mainland by the Hindenburgdamm causeway. In latter years, it has been a resort for the German jet set and tourists in search of occasional celebrity sighting. Southeast of Sylt the islands Föhr and Amrum are located, to the north lies the Danish island Rømø. East of Sylt the Wadden Sea is situated, which belongs to the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park and mostly falls dry during low tide.   read more…

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