Spring Clouds

This picture was taken early May 2005, at Westkapelle beach. Westkapelle is a small village on the Walcheren peninsula. It is in fact, as far as you can get. Beyond the village is the North Sea. Standing on the beach, the sense of space is overwhelming. The wind has blown the air free of humidity. That in itself would be reason enough to go there. In summer the village is visited by hosts of mostly german tourists. Outside the season, the village is quiet. There are occasional english visitors. They come in remembrance of the english army which landed on this beach in early winter 1944. There is a museum commemorating this historic event. Walcheren is part of the Zeeland province. History and beer are not bad reasons to visit this place. But the main reason that people keep coming back is probably something else; the enormous sense of space, almost out of time and most cerainly a rarity in contemporary Netherlands.