Emden, Germany - Rain, Bikes, Rain, Rain

We wanted a bit of time to take "circle trips" with our bikes - stay at a fixed center, take day trips from wherever we were and bike to and from there and back. Of course you understand.

Emden is north of here, on the river Ems.  There are, as always here, lovely villages and landscapes to visit from a hub. And Emden offers other attractions, among them a world-class art museum. OK, let's go!

I have a new bike since my old one was stolen.  The new one is of course better: a Porsche to the old VW. OK, maybe not quite, but it is a very nice bike - lots of gears, hand brakes, shock absorbers on the front wheel and the seat, a world class lock, of course.  Love the bike! And equally, of course, I love to take the train instead of the car.  And really, why should we use the car to take the bikes some place and then park the car for five days???? The back pack and the saddle bags hold everything for five days (food excluded).  Frugal packing.

The holiday apartment was perfect - light and white and just the right size for the two of us.

First day was just settling in - get some provisions, get acquainted with the neighborhood. We had dinner at the Vietnamese restaurant that was soooo good - fresh spring rolls and crispy fish!  I have to remind myself that the former East Germany was allied with (former) communist Vietnam, so there are lots of Vietnamese immigrants - and restaurants - here.  Nevertheless, too much food.  We have to remind ourselves of the rule - two appetizers, one main course.  Even that is often more than enough.

Day 2  -  Starting from Emden, we biked along the harbor.  Major, major ships here that ship everything to and from everywhere.  Please notice, mid-August, I am wearing a shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, a scarf.  Not warm, it was.

We took the ferry- a very small ferry - from Emden to Ditzum.  Ditzum - is that a great name or what (right up there with Old Dirt Road).  The ferry can take up to three vehicles plus 40 people, or 90 people. I don't know if bikes count as people or 20 bikes equals one car, or what. But I don't think there were any people without bikes or cars there.  Getting three vehicles on the ferry was a logistical puzzle to me but the personnel made it entertainment.

When we got off on the other side, there was a HORSE getting ready to board.  That was a first for me.  Well-trained horse, to be sure with all those folks and bikes.

Ditzum, like so many places here -- dare I say it for the umteenth time -- is a charming village.  Many of the villages we visited around here were established in the 9th century.  I wonder how much bigger these villages are now, because they are still small.  There was the statue commemorating the fishwife, a windmill, lighthouse, narrow streets.

From Ditzum to Jemgum.  That just sounds like chewing without teeth.

Then to Leer. In German, leer means empty, done, nothing.  But absolutely not true of the town which has so much to look at.

But we were done.  Didn't do as much looking around as we should have, and, aren't we lucky!!  The train goes from Leer to Emden every 30 minutes; so, as we were tired, we took the train. I think that's cheating, a bit, but we're not grading here.

Day 3, Sunday, was museum day.  Good choice! The weather was for biking good - NOT!  Friends from Bremen come through on the way to a family gathering and together we took the tour of the current exhibit about Alexei von Jawlensky.

We thoroughly enjoyed (most of) it, had a bite to eat after the tour - or rather they had a bite.  We were still full from breakfast!  Then Werner and I tried to relax.

Day 4 was mixed.  There were Unwetterwarnungs. Really, that is not hard to understand.  Bad weather warnings, folks.  Batten down the hatches, bring in the pets.  But we're risky folks, and in the morning we took a local tour of the local sites.  An old locomotive near the train station,

the old harbor,

grammatically correct graffiti,

 

and yet another windmill.  We are along the Lower Saxony Windmill trail, after all.

Mid-day, the Unwetter hit again, so we retired to the apartment for a bit more relaxation. Later in the day we tried a mini-tour again.

There are all kinds of canals around here!  Of course, it's a way to get around, but it's also a vast drainage system for the soggy land.  The best crop around here is grass, cows, and sheep.

Of course, more rain found us and we found temporary shelter under a Mirabellen tree.  Sadly, the fruit was not so wonderful, but Werner looked so cute in his poncho!!

Day 5 turned out to be the best.  We headed off to the Großes Meer - the Big Lake - even though there were still dire warnings of Unwetter.  We were rewarded for our boldness!!  Though cool (I think I was wearing practically everything I brought along) it was sunny through the morning.

First stop, Hinte, which wasn't even on the list.  They do brick here:  houses, fences, churches, barns, windmills, streets and even curbs!

The church, late Gothic, mid-15th c, was a Collegiate Church, so rather larger than it needs to be for the community it served and serves.

And next door, the local "castle," still in the hands of the family that built it in the late 13th century.  Wow.

Next, the famous Leaning Tower of Suurhusen.  I am not kidding - it leans more than the famous Tower of Pisa and there's a plaque from the Guinness World Record folks to prove it! It's hard to see the tilt in these pictures, but it was interesting.

Finally we arrived at the lake. There were folks out there in their wetsuits wind surfing but no one on the beach.  Then it was time for lunch, where we met up again with travelers we'd seen earlier, also a German/English mix.

Heading back to the apartment, we saw a lot of the more modern windmills that are popping up like mushrooms here in the north and in the North Sea.

 And then it came.  We barely got to shelter before the skies opened up and pelted us but good.

On the road again, and finally home but not without running  into the British one more time, more churches, and for dinner, more rain.

Off the next morning fairly early, everything packed on two wheels. It was a great little getaway.  Except maybe for the rain.