I finished up school (and working) on the 15th. We had a good end of the year, but I don't think I would have survived too many more days! Luckily the day after we finished, Regina and I got on a train with our bikes and went to the North Sea island of Sylt. This is a very popular German beach destination, especially for people from Northern Germany. For us, it was almost 10 hours on the train (IC, slower than an ICE). On Sylt we stayed in a small apartment in Keitum. Keitum was a great place to stay. It is small, central, and has lovely thatched roof cottages. The place we stayed was such a house, originally built a few 100 years ago.
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| Arriving in Keitum |
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| View over the fields in Keitum |
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| Sunset in Keitum |
The first two days were not quite beach weather, so instead we walked and biked. The first day we biked to Westerland and walked along the beach there. Then later we walked through the Braderuper Heide (heather).
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| Walking through a group of sheep, guarded by a sheepdog (who checked us out, but was not too interested) |
The second day we biked all the way to the northern tip of the island, and also the northern most point of Germany. We found an inland bike route, over the sand dunes. We stopped at the Akademie am Meer, founded by the father of my Dad's colleague. Then continued up to Ellenbogen, the "elbow" at the top of Sylt.
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| Biking the sand dunes |
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| The Knud Ahlborn Saal at the Akademie am Meer |
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| The end of the island |
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| Can you see Denmark behind me? |
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| A lighthouse on the dunes |
The next couple days were sunny and warm, and so we went to the beach. The first day we biked down to the Sansibar beach, south on the island. The next day was too warm for biking, so we stayed closer to home.
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| Swimming in the North Sea - the water was about 17C, not so warm!! |
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| Both days we rented a Strandkorb (beach basket) so I could hide from the sun |
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| Rotes Kliff (red cliff) - an unusual coloured dune |
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| We sat on the sand and watched the sun drop into the water, behind a few clouds |
The last full day we stayed in Keitum and visited their museum and heritage house.
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| Weaving demonstration in the museum |
Afterwards Regina went back to the beach, and I biked around looking at all the beautiful cottages, many of which have hydrangeas planted outside that were in full bloom.
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| I love the range of colours they have! |
And for a final evening trip I biked out to the Morsum cliffs, through fields of cows and wheat. Without so much wind it was a lovely ride as the sun was setting.
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| There were even some calves |
The last day was again a travel day. Luckily this time we had a direct train, and so it was only 8 hours back to Frankfurt.
