Juist (IPA: [jyËst]) 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). Juist is 17 km long and 500 m to 1 km wide (this depends on the level of tide, which sinks and falls about 2.5 m in 6 hours). There are two villages on the island: the main village Juist, and Loog.
TrafficJuist can be reached from Norddeich train station and ferry port on the East Frisian mainland by the ferries of Reederei Norden-Frisia Frisia II, Frisia VI, Frisia IX, Frisia X at high tide - that means usually only once a day.
A non-tide-dependent way to reach the island is offered by the Airline FLN, though the weather conditions are sometimes - especially in winter - so bad that the airline has to cancel all flights for a day. Their 4-seated Cessna and their four 10-seated Britten-Norman Islanders serve Juist airport, which is the one with the second highest number of starts and landings in Lower Saxony after the capital airport Hannover.
The passage by ship takes about - depending on the wind and the waterlevel - 90 minutes, a flight takes just 7 minutes.
Only the fire department, the German Red Cross and doctors have motor vehicles - the police have only 'office bikes'. The post office and the shipping company have each one electric car. Some institutions like the shipping company and a branch of the Coastal defence authority have tractors, but need a special license, every time they want to navigate through the town.
All other transports like garbage collection, building material, guest luggage, pizza service etc. are done by bike or horse-drawn carriage.
'Skyline'What you can see from the North Sea as 'skyline' are just two buildings: the water tower and an old hotel, which looks a bit like the German Reichstag since its restoration. The lighthouse at the port is not high enough to be seen from the North Sea - has no nautical importance, not even for the ferries to the island. Its use is rather to make the port area look nicer.
HammerseeA natural specialty is lake Hammersee, a fresh water lake in the western third of the island. In the 17th and 18th century Juist was cut in two parts by several storm tides. Around the year 1770 people started to close the 2 km wide burst at the southern side by a dune dike. As recently as 1928 the northern side was repaired. By the time the water in the lake turned from saltwater to freshwater.
Sweet water, where salt water is all aroundJuist is - seen with the geologist's eye - nothing but sand. Rain water which drips into the sand has a lower density than saltwater, which makes a kind of fresh water bubble float over the saltwater around and deep under the island. That's why Juist island does not have a fresh water pipeline to the mainland - and made Hammersee turn into a fresh water lake.
Bill - WestendBill is northern German dialect word for 'butt' and 'end'.
At the western end of Juist, there is a large sandbank, the 'Billreef'. It looks absolutely empty like a sand desert. But if you have a spyglass, especially during bird migration time, you can watch many (up to 30.000 at one time) migrating birds taking a break. The Dunlin, Grey Plover and Knot have a long way to go - for example from Tamyr peninsula in Siberia and to Africa. Their break in the Wadden Sea is absolutely essential, because these birds need to eat a lot of food in the shortest time possible to move on quickly. That's why Billreef is a natural reserve.
At this end of the island, there is also 'Domäne Bill', a restaurant where you can have fresh Frisian raisin bred 'Rosinenstuten' and other local specialties after an exertive hike.
The beach and the dunes are eroded by the sea in the western part of Juist. The edge of the dunes moves about five meters to the south each winter. Things like this happen on every East Frisian island - some islands moved so far that the town had to be rebuilt several times. Every island except Juist and Langeoog have big concrete groynes at their western end.
TourismTourism is the main source of income for Juist's economy. In almost all the buildings on the island are guestrooms. There are also several hotels and a youth hostel.
The island is popular for people having respiratory complaints because of the unpolluted air.
PoliticsOn September 9, 2001 Juist citizen voted for their mayor directly for the first time. Karl-Josef Wederhake won the election. He was re-elected in September 2006.
Island partnershipThere is an island partnership between Juist and Hiddensee in Baltic Sea.
