Neuwerk

Neuwerk
Geography
Neuwerk
Neuwerk
Location	North Sea, Elbe mouth
Area	3 km² (1.2 sq mi)
Administration
Germany
State	Hamburg
Borough	Hamburg-Mitte
Demographics
Population	39 ((2007-12-31))
Pop. density	13 /km² (34 /sq mi)

Neuwerk (3 km², 39 inhabitants) is a tidal island in the Wadden Sea on the German North Sea coast. Neuwerk is located 13 km northwest of Cuxhaven, between the Weser and Elbe estuaries. The distance to Hamburg's center is about 120 km. Other English names for the island are New-Werk and Newark.

Administratively, Neuwerk forms a homonymous quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, which is part of the borough Hamburg-Mitte. This quarter includes the islands of Scharhörn and Nigehörn, which are bird sanctuaries and closed to the public. All three islands and the Wadden Sea around them form the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park.

Dikes encircle the island, which is about 3 km square, and one can walk around it in an hour. Salt marshes (the "Outland"), lie outside the dikes and provide a hatchery for birds such as oystercatchers, scrays, sandwich terns, black-headed gulls, herring gulls, and others. During the summer farmers may pasture cows and horses on the northern Outland.

At low tide one can reach the island on foot or on a Wattwagen, horse-drawn mud flat coaches from Cuxhaven. A row of poles on the mud flats marks the way. The path includes some elevated cages. These are rescue pods. Should high tide catch a walker far from shore, the walker can climb into the pod and wait for the tide to recede, or trigger a flare. Triggering the flare summons a rescue boat; rescue involves a fee and non-negligible fine.

During the summer the vessel MS Flipper makes a daily trip at high tide from the "Alte Liebe" port in Cuxhaven to the island. Because departure times depend on the tides, the times are variable. The trip takes about an hour and a half one-way.

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Wikipedia