Schiermonnikoog

Schiermonnikoog is one of the West Frisian Islands, sixteen kilometres long and four wide, and the site of the first national park in the Netherlands. Fewer than a thousand people live here, making it the least populated municipality in the country, and only around two hundred islanders hold the licence needed to keep a car. The streets are effectively car-free. Dunes, woodland, polder, salt marsh, tidal flat and open beach all fit onto it. Day trippers arrive by the thousand in high summer, but the last ferry leaves at half past seven, and then the island goes quiet.