traditional frisian house
Originally it was an island so untamed that it had no trees. As the tourists arrived, they decided to plant them like someone who puts plants in their house, to decorate and give a certain natural charm to the environment. Not even its famous wild roses -the smell of the island-, that grow like borage, are native to the North Sea , they were brought in the 19th century from the East, from Japan and China.
But all the magnificent coastline of cliffs, heaths, dunes and mudflats that surrounds it, yes, it is endemic to Sylt and today it is part of the world heritage. The question is until when. Every year, strong waves, wind and winter storms they swallow between one and four meters of beach.
the north sea
The most effective protection measure since 1972 consists of rescuing the million cubic meters of sand lost in the coasts of List, Kampen and Hörnum. Although he has a cost of millions of euros and there are discordant voices - conservationists who maintain that it is not possible to put doors to the sea or seek artificial solutions -, for the moment it works.
Sheep in a meadow at Altes Schöpfwerk
Another thing is what will happen in the near future if climate change continues. The most vulnerable place is in the southern tip of the island, at Hörnum-Odde , where in a single day at the beach you can experience the two types of sandy area on Sylt: the kind and calm from the east coast and the wild of the open sea off the west coast.
15 years ago the walk between one and the other took three long hours . Today it can be done in just over an hour. Meanwhile, the value of the square meter on Sylt continues to rise. In places like the elegant Keitum , its price doubles that of the Piazza di Spagna in Rome . We are in the Hamptons of Germany. The site chosen by the Nordic upper classes to spend their holidays.
an island of barely 20,000 inhabitants as Sylt has many things in common with a megalopolis of 20 million inhabitants like New York. The three-stage modernization process is the same.
Typical house of the island, in Keitum
let's think about successful neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Harlem: beginning in the margins, arrival of the artists who wash the face of the district and appearance of the organic food restaurants and the train tracks turned into hanging Gardens.
Gentrification is imposed. Sylt was a wild whaling sandbank at the beginning of the 20th century.
Although it has always received distinguished tourists -among them Clara Tiedemann, Thomas Mann, Valeska Gert, and Max Frisch- , who put the island on the map were the first surfers, hippies and nudists that filled its beaches in the 1960s and 1970s, many of them bohemian intellectuals and left-wing artists.
Then came high society and the price of residing on the island was raised to prohibitive heights. The island also has its bike lane that occupies the old railway line of the train that until the 70s linked Sylt from north to south, from List to Hörnum.
The wind and the dunes used to bury the tracks and frequently made it unusable. Are 42 kilometers between gardens of wild roses where they circulate mostly electric bikes . Living here all year is not easy.
Jan Philippe Berner I'm coming from lower saxony 18 years old and cursed her. He was too young, the insularity syndrome manifested itself in all its rawness.
Surfer in Rantum
The largest of the Frisian Islands have 100 square kilometers -for you to compare, the surface of Ibiza is 600 km2- and it is located in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein , north of northern Germany, in the border with Denmark.
Today, at 32 years old, he affirms that he would not live anywhere else. "It's like always being on vacation" , he says. Berner is the chef of the Söl'ring Hof restaurant in Rantum, with two Michelin stars and a team of 18 chefs. He has established a strong network of local fishermen, farmers and gardeners.
“Last week I used 86 kilos of rugosa roses for cooking. Where could I find them as easily as on Sylt?” says Berner. Here the roses are organic food. The usual way of get to the island is in railway.
For centuries Sylt was a poor and isolated place, until in 1927 the Hindenburgdamm was built (or Hindenburg Dam), an arm of artificial land of eleven kilometers through which the train runs to the mainland.
The typical beach basket chairs or Strandkörbe on the beach of Hörnurn
It connected it with the world, but it also modified the marine currents and complicated the fragility of its ecosystem. The oldest in the place they still speak söl'ring, the impossible Frisian language. there is even An association to keep it alive, Söl'ring Foriining, which has 2,700 members, many of them unable to speak it.
Communication by land has two alternatives: the plane and the ship from Denmark. A line of ferries connects in 40 minutes the danish port of Havneby , on the island of Rome, with the port of List.
The Behrens brothers, Uwe, Conrad and Dieter, owners of the Buhne 16 beach bistro, with the catch of the day.
Some of the pioneers remain on the island. Brothers Behrens, Uwe, Conrad, and Dieter , they arrived from Biarritz in 1962 and they started to surfing at kampen beach . The surrounding fishermen thought they were crazy.
They opened a snack bar in the middle of a 40 kilometer beach and today, now retired, they spend summer mornings in a booth on the terrace watching the dunes move, how they dance the rough waters of the North Sea.
From time to time they take the binoculars to see if the boat is approaching with the catch of fish and shellfish of the day. The popular Buhne 16, a bistro for surfers , it is run by his heirs, cousins Tim and Sven Behrens. To get here you have to walk ten minutes between protected dunes.
The dunes are natural barriers that prevent the island from drowning in the sea. Athough it does not seems, the hidden roots of its plants -the reeds (Ammophila arenaria), here called Strandhafer- miden between eight and ten meters.
Caravan in a meadow near the coast, in Rantum
They have a colossal grip, but they are terribly fragile. It is enough to walk on them a couple of times for them to die. 50 percent of the island's surface is a protected area. The Wadden Sea (Wattenmeer) National Park of Schleswig-Holstein It has the largest region of marshes in the world.
The reservation is UNESCO world heritage since 2009 . This fascinating space can be visited in Hörnum. Accompanied by a guide it is possible to walk in the moonscape of the marshes , with one foot in the sea, avoiding a unique fauna of crabs, starfish, molluscs and sea snails.
At first glance it looks like a gray plateau of lifeless silt, but up close you sense that the information revealed by the biologist is true: every square meter is occupied by two million living organisms.
The most recognizable stamp of Sylt in Germany and much of Mitteleuropa is a white sand beach with a Strandkörbe row formation. A Strandkorb is a sofa-beach basket which, with all its extras, weighs 85 kilos, has capacity for three people And it costs almost three thousand euros.
Dieter Behrens, local surf legend and founder of the Buhne 16
The Trautmann family started to make them in 1948 and the task is so complex that they cannot do more than five a day. These baskets became popular due to the bathers' need for protect yourself from strong wind and sun of the island.
On Sylt they brag about their 1,750 hours of sunshine per year , a very higher than the German average due to the insular relief. The clouds find no resistance in mountains and continue on their way to the continent.
It is true that the sun can be blinding but also that at the same time it is cool in the shade. The first time I traveled to Sylt was a weekend that coincided with the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, The 21st of June. In theory, that day summer starts.
I asked a German friend for time what he was doing on the island. “Very good, don't worry. -answered me-. Let's see, not to bathe in the beach , of course, but very good”.
Because of the exuberance of the beaches, with snow-white sands and blue skies dominated by kitesurfers and migratory birds that arrive from south africa , there are times when you find it hard to believe that you are in Teutonic territory.
Facade of the Pius wine cellar
Then you see them eating prawns with roasted potatoes and you stand Or having dinner at 6:00 p.m. in summer Not a minute later. Or clinging to his hobby get around in high-end cars on an island 40 kilometers long.
Or before the occurrence of having invented some giant baskets to be on the beach and that they have also succeeded in a big way: every year they place up to twelve thousand along the entire coastline of the island.
kampen , south of the charismatic Buhne 16, has been the traditional village of artists , a network of houses with thatch roofs by the sea. the place where they spent the summer Thomas Mann and Max Frisch in search of nature and chosen solitude.
Bar of the Hotel Benen-Diken-Hof, in Keitum
On the outskirts of the town, without leaving the coast, is the 'mountain' of the island , the highest point with 52 meters high. It is also a dune , they are calling her wow in tribute to the lawyer Uwe Jens Lornsen, defender of the autonomy of Schleswig-Holstein , and has a viewpoint at the top of the stairs.
To one side, Denmark; to the other, England. It is a good place to see with perspective. Sylt is the perfect laboratory to study man's impact on nature and check if it is profitable in the medium term put doors to the sea or is it just a cosmetic solution. In 70 years Sylt will be something else . We don't know what, but different.
The Strandkörbe serve as chairs on the terrace of Friesenstube.
HOW TO GET
Iberia
From Spain, Iberia operates daily flights with Hamburg airport . The island of Sylt is located in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein , the northernmost in Germany, just over three hours by train from Hamburg Central Station. Sylt cannot be reached by car, although vehicles can be checked in on the Deutsche Bahn train.
GUIDED VISITS
Schutzstation Wattenmeer (Rantumerstraße 33, Hörnum)
The guides are biologists who know better than anyone else the protected reserve of the Wattenmeer National Park.
Chef Johannes King at his two-Michelin-starred Söl’ring Hof restaurant in Keitum
WHERE TO SLEEP
Alte Friesenstube 1648 (Gaadt 4, Westerland)
Living history of the island, the hotel's architecture refers to the local culture and was recognized with the LEED certification for its perfect integration into the environment and good energy management.
Benen-Diken-Hof (Keitumer Süderstraße 3-5, Keitum)
The Johannsen family hotel is the most elegant Keitum, the most sophisticated villa on Sylt. Also the most authentic. 48 rooms, suites, studios and apartments distributed in mansions with the traditional thatch roof. It has a spa with sauna and heated pool . In summer, the breakfasts on the terrace they are epic It has a very small bar with a very large bar, sometimes animated by the Herr Johannsen.
WHERE TO EAT
Kökken (Keitumer Süderstraße 3, Keitum)
The restaurant of Hotel Benen-Diken-Hof it specializes in Nordic cuisine, but above all it is an oyster lover's paradise. On Sylt you will find the only oyster farm in Germany , which cultivates a million each year.
Entrance to the Alte Friesenstube restaurant
Sansibar (Hörnumerstraße 80, Rantum)
One of the most successful restaurants on Sylt. To get a table you have to reserve with much (but a lot) advance.
Alte Friesenstube 1648 (Gaad, 4, Westerland)
Traditional cuisine and a historic setting. Built in the year 1648 , this is the oldest Frisian mansion on Sylt.
Genuss-Shop and Söl'ring Hof (Gurtstieg 2, Keitum / Am Sandwall 1, Rantum)
Jan Philippe Berner is the chef of the Söl'ring Hof restaurant, with two Michelin stars, and the owner of Genus-Shop, a delicatessen shop and tapas restaurant ideal to end a day at the beach.
Turbot at the Sansibar restaurant
Buhne 16 (Listlandstraße 133b, Kampen)
Bistro located on the sand of the kampen beach and led by Sven and Tim Behrens , heirs of the famous 'Behrens brothers', surfing legends from the island of Sylt. They organize concerts.
WHERE TO HAVE A COFFEE
Kupferkanne (Stapelhooger Wai 7, Kampen)
Here they make their own coffee made in Sylt. You will find more practical information about the island at sylt.de and germany.travel.
Keitum House-Museum