Thurs 30th – A suitably foggy day for our trip to the Frisian islands of ‘Riddle of the Sands’ fame, but at least it’s flat calm …
We leave
Holland and enter Germany in the middle of the River Ems, and Charles hoists
the courtesy flag …
A
mysterious ship makes its way through the fog!
Later in
the afternoon, it cleared up and the sun came out. Our first glimpse of Nordeney revealed a much
more modern seaside resort than we’d expected …
We tied
up in Nordeney Marina and celebrated our safe arrival – we seem to celebrate
arriving quite often – it’s a good excuse!
Then we
enjoyed an evening stroll in the sunshine …
Fri 31st – I got out my trusty fold-up bike …
… and set
out to explore the island (Charles had work to do, so stayed on board).
Firstly the
town, which is all at one end of the island …
This is
the central square with the Conversationshaus (community hall) and Badehaus
(bath house). The Badehaus has a sea
water swimming pool with wave effects, and a number of baths of different
temperatures which are supposed to have therapeutic qualities. Nordeney grew up as a spa destination with
healing baths.
On the
beach, people rent ‘deck sofas’ rather than deck chairs, with a sort of roof
and side walls – perhaps to protect them from the incredibly strong winds you
seem to get here!
I then
set off to explore the rest of the island by bike – most of the interior is
sand dunes covered with scrubby grass …
I climbed
up to a windy viewpoint …
… and gazed at vast sandy beaches and the ‘white horses’ at sea.
Then I
pedalled ‘home’ along the coastal dyke round a nature reserve – a mistake as it
was very exposed to the wind, and very hard work on my fold-up bike. In all I cycled about 10 miles on those
little wheels!
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