Werner has treated me to more than a few birthday trips - on a North Sea island, on bike paths, in Paris (!!). We've done trips for his birthday, too, but mine often fell/fall in the autumn holiday time, so that made it convenient.
These days, it is holiday every day (LOL since we are retired) so little trips don't have quite the significance. But any trip is nice, and special. You have to plan. You have to think ahead.
But not too much. Just a week before my birthday, Werner says, Let's go! And we made plans to go to Neuharlingersiel on the North Sea coast.
We did a bit of back-and-forth re: train or car? bikes or no bikes? and finally landed on car and no bikes. Walking along the dikes and the water is good for clearing out the cobwebs and exercising the bones.
The trip is 2+ hours by car. Hey, Werner: When was the last time we took a trip in the car here in our Germany that lasted over two hours? We couldn't remember.... Trains are our first choice these last few years but getting to the coast would have required at least three transfers. Not fun, so no go.
The Harle is the river flowing through this region, so various townships are named for it.
We left and headed north and got to Altharlingersiel (The Old Harle Sluice) just in time for tea and a bit of cake.
Here we are on my 77th birthday and it's time for tea, and we find a really traditional north Friesian Tea Room. Freshly home-made cakes, freshly brewed tea, decorations the old ladies love.
The highlight, though, are the cakes. Over-big slices of everything they offer. Werner has opted for the cherry streusel cake; I go for the poppy seed cream cake with marzipan. Really, who wouldn't?
After not being able to finish our cakes, we head to the hotel in New Harle Sluice (Neuharlingersiel). Wow. They have done some major renovations the last few years - new bike paths, new pedestrian paths, reworked roads with lovely planted spaces. There are hundreds and hundreds of campers and RVs. It has become a tourist destination!
Nevertheless, the old harbor area is still that - an old working harbor. The boats still go out and catch the fish and the little shrimp that folks from all over north Germany enjoy every day.
Saturday there was lots of low fog most of the day.
But walk we did, 9K in downtown and along the dike. The fog did finally lift and some sites were a bit more clear.
And just a few steps away there's a bridge over the moat with railings from old whale ribs. Old whale ribs. It seems so barbaric today, but whale hunting was the life blood of the local economy.
A random leaf on an old wall.
Along the way, a view of an old farm and the entrance to the home connected to the barn. I think, with climate change, it isn't as important as before, but there were times when getting to the barn to care for the animals was really hard if you had to trudge through the elements.
Dinner was lovely. Again, we ordered one appetizer and one main dish for the two of us and the kitchen was happy to comply. Really! The waiter said that the appetizer of small shrimp was a ridiculous amount for one person!
Sunday morning was bright and clear!
Well. Not my thing, but weird and interesting. The title was It's Never Too Late to Panic and consisted of parts of construction equipment that were supposed to be "clapping" hands but looked more like mouths trying to gobble up the visitors and all kinds of flashing lights, sirens, and screeching noises of the metal parts. Then there was a film of the artist burning dandelion seed heads.
1 comment:
Dankeschön 🤗🤗
Post a Comment