Up at the Northern tip of the Netherlands, there are 4 or 5 small islands. Ameland is one of them.

We went up for a weekend and it was gorgeous weather, so we hired a couple of bicycles to view the island at a snail's pace.

We cycled more than 30 km's in one day! And I still have a pain in my arse as I'm sitting here, updating the webpage!

This is the view from our hotel window.

The islands are famous for a lot of things.

One of them has great sheep. I dread to think, however, what on earth the sheep are great at.

Ameland has a lighthouse.

Being such a famous lighthouse, I presumed that you'd be able to see it from all across the island.

You can't. And it wasn't until we'd cycled 20 km's that I discovered the island was a lot bigger than I thought it would be.

Hell, it's so big it could be famous for having three lighthouses! See if I care...

I had to zoom right in to get this photo, that's why it's poor quality.

Basically that's an oil rig you're looking at.

Maybe the oil rigs are really enormous or maybe they're just really close to land, but you can see quite a few of them when standing on the beach.

You would think petrol would be cheaper considering they're digging it up so close to Holland.

I didn't know which looked better. This photo in colour or the same photo in black and white.

Those are famous sheep in the background!!

This is an unfamous horse.

This is a flock of penguins taking off as we cycled towards them.

The photo is taken on the non-beach side of the island. I presume this is a famous Dutch dyke you're looking at, by the way!!!

The Dutch used to have dyke guardsmen who roamed the dykes in stormy weather to see if everything was still safe and sound.

Successive Dutch governments have cut spending though and insurance companies have taken over.

The insurance companies tell the government how high they want the dykes to be, the Dutch tax payer funds the high dykes and then the Dutch tax payer has to pay insurance just in case the dyke is breached. It's a lovely system.

This is a statue dedicated to the brave men who patrolled the dykes.

The following two pictures are of a young couple I photographed on the boat as we left the island.

To them:

"Als jullie de "printable" fotos willen, laat me dat dan even weten...mijn e-mail adres staat op de voorpagina van de site, dan mail ik ze even! Deze zijn namelijk te klein om te printen. Laat dan meteen weten of jullie ze in zwart/wit of kleur willen."