Our experience at the Wadden Sea in three words? Windy, awe and sustainability.

It is certain that it was a special week in September. Not only because it was a very pleasant collaboration between Interpret Europe Belgium and two Dutch Interpret Europe members: the Wadden Association and the Seal Centre Pieterburen. But mainly because of the unique location.

The Wadden Sea (UNESCO World Heritage) and its tidal forces (the largest in the world) kept us spellbound. A group of 14 heritage professionals from all over Europe worked together for a whole week on an interpretive plan for the new Wadden World Heritage Center.

Stories, themes, experiences

What stories are there? What stories do we want to tell? What themes connect those different stories? How do we ensure that visitors can really connect with the place? How do we give them a meaningful experience? That was the challenge of the week.

We had a very special experience, a sense of place activity, at the beginning of the week: a mud walk on the mudflats.

 “To share a mudflatwalk with participants from all over Europe who have never set a foot on the mud is an experience in itself! It needed so much explanation that we just said nothing and just… experienced. How do I walk, what is this, the smell, the views. Pure heritage interpretation to see and feel and look at the horizon. After a walk in silence, we looked for species and wondered about their adaptations so that they can live at all in these ever changing circumstances. A great experience on such a small patch of the Waddensea!” acknowledges our guide, Renate.

Creating an interpretive plan

This experience gave the group the perfect state of mind for the assignment of the week: creating an interpretive plan for the new visitor center.

We visited the old fishing port and museum, we spoke to fishermen, biologists and the managers of the new visitor center. These multi-perspective views gave us insight into the complex interests of people, animals and nature. How can people, animals and nature live in harmony and balance in this place? How can nature’s assets be played out and strengthened in this place? How can we facilitate personal experiences and reflections?

Three different planning proposals were presented at the end of the week.

It was a very interesting knowledge exchange, in which we were able to apply the principles of ‘interpretive planning’ to a real case!

Welcome in 2025

The new visitor center in Lauwersoog will open in 2025. The Wadden Experience Centre (WEC) will invite its visitors to discover what the UNESCO World Heritage Wadden Sea means to them.

“The WEC believes people are part of nature. We want to share that view with our visitors, provoke them to relate themselves to the natural heritage around them and consider what that means for their relation with the Wadden Sea and in fact, the world” says Sander.

We cordially invite you to come and discover it!

Laila De Bruyne is impact manager and community builder at Revive, a company that transforms (industrial heritage) buildings into new lively neighbourhoods. She uses interpretive planning as a way to connect and reconnect communities in and around the heritage sites. She is freelancing as a heritage consultant and is Interpret Europe’s Country Coordinator Belgium. You can contact her at: Laila.debruyne@interpret-europe.net

Sander van Dijk is Head Programming & Content at Seal Centre Pieterburen & project coordinator of the Wadden Experience Centre Lauwersoog. Sander trained as a marine biologist, but pursued a career in science communication and education. For the last ten years he has worked on the content development of the Sealcentre in Pieterburen, as well as the newly developed Wadden Experience Centre in Lauwersoog. You can contact him at: sander.dijk@zeehondencentrum.nl

 Renate de Backere has been involved in the protection of the Wadden Sea for 17 years. She mainly works as a trainer for promoting the Wadden Sea and educating guides, entrepreneurs, visitor centre employees and other stakeholders in learning about the natural values of this unique World Heritage Site. You can contact her at: Backere@waddenvereniging.nl

To cite this article: De Bruyne, Laila & Van Dijk, Sander & De Backere, Renate (2023) ‘The Wadden Sea, an unknown gem in The Netherlands‘  in Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2023, pg.10-11.
Available online: https://interpret-europe.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IE-Newsletter-2023_4-winter.pdf

Wine can tell us many stories and reveal secrets. Not only because of the old Latin saying “in vino veritas”, but also because of something that the famous artist Salvador Dali described: “He who knows how to enjoy, no longer drinks wine, but tastes secrets”.

The Danube macroregion has many secrets. And wines. And stories.

Here, along the Danube, we share many stories about lifestyle, tradition, cooperation, influences, but also about sustainability and diversity. Wine (and food) is all about variety. And diversity is actually identity.

In the ‘Transdanube Travel Stories’ project, we tried to inspire local, small family wineries to prepare new tourist products, using an interpretive way of connecting guests with their heritage, through wine. So, all those stories about tradition, history, influences, special events, families and their relationships with other people, nature or terroir can reveal many secrets.

The Danube has a unique identity, but every small place, village… even every family, has some special unique points of identity. In marketing, we know it as a USP – a Unique Selling Point.

In Tourism, we can definitely say: our heritage (it doesn’t matter if it is a personal or national level of heritage).

It was an honor to be invited to speak in front of a collection of great winemakers, experts, sommeliers, historians, museum curators, and journalists. It was a great opportunity to share a few thoughts in an interactive presentation on how to inspire our guests, evoke resonance in them using the attitude towards their daily life and provide them with a real opportunity to get closer to our destination in a way that is understandable and relevant to them, through our local specialties – to feel the place. Or, in this case, maybe it’s better to say: taste the place. All participants of the presentation agreed that education for an interpretive approach in Eno-Gastro tourism can add additional value to the already high-quality wines in the Danube Region. And also, the desired recognition

To finish, I will share just one small personal observation and a big thing about gastronomic interpretation: Along with good wine and food, half the work in these meaningful experiences is actually done by them themselves with their taste, smell, and color. Meaningful relationships are just beginning to flow like wine.

Max Dubravko Fijačko is an award-wining heritage interpreter and an IE Certified Trainer for interpretive guides (CIG). He is IE’s Gastronomic Heritage Coordinator. He was involved in the Interreg project ‘Transdanube Travel Stories’ as an educator and guest speaker. You can get in touch with him at: dubravko.fijacko@gmail.com.

To cite this article: Fijačko, Max Dubravko (2022) ‘Sharing of wine is sharing of stories’ in Interpret Europe Newsletter 4-2022, pg.16

Available online: https://interpret-europe.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Newsletter-2022_4-winter.pdf