Luneplate

No, it's not a plate, but it is flat.  And I can't find a good translation for Plate.  It's a slightly inland area from the mouth of the Weser near the Lune River at Bremerhaven.  The areas meld, there are tidal basins, and the land is used as farm land and/or industrial land and/or natural preservation areas depending.

Today, we saw all of that.

We put the bikes on the car and drove to the Schaufenster Fischereihaven - the showcase at the fish harbor in Bremerhaven.  It was a real working harbor in years past, is still (a bit) but mostly now a tourist attraction with old ships and lots of restaurants and a nice square where lots of events take place in good weather. We wanted to visit the Luneplate, a nature preserve that's newly got bike paths and places to watch the wildlife.  Of course, the best times to do that are spring and fall as the migrating birds come through, but...we're going to do it today, birds or no birds.

Wind.  I swear, last summer was the summer of heat, this one is the summer of wind. It started out warm and sunny and gradually got cooler and cloudier.  But, no rain!

Bremerhaven got bombed to bits during WWII - 90% of it was destroyed - so the city looks rather quickly put together or modern.  From where we started, quite impressive.

The newly laid path to the nature preserve is really nice, but I have to say, kinda boring.

There are long stretches of straight concrete paths and not much, nature-wise, to catch your attention.

But it was pleasant (except for the head wind) and we eventually got to the observation platform, a single-story shelter where you can watch the birds. It's a really fancy blind, but no shooting!  Today, there weren't many birds but we saw spoon-billed ducks, new to me.

A bit further along was a tower looking over a tidal basin.  You can see a really long way here.

We took a break and ate some cherries (we're still eating cherries) and enjoyed the landscape.  There are water buffalo here as well, and we saw them from a distance.  I don't know if they make mozzarella cheese from their milk; I should find out.

A nice day, a moderate ride, only 20+K, but deserving of apple pie and coffee before heading home.