Saturday, 2 June 2007

The North Sea - Germany

Schillig

Herbert’s daughter Iris and her husband Olaf and almost 3 year old son Paul, took us up to the North Sea for a picnic today. Iris is a teacher so first we dropped into her school at Jaderberg and had a look around. It’s quite new with large classrooms. School starts at 8am and the students finish at about 1pm. Iris had the last two sessions free so she was able to leave early.


The weather was quite warm so we sat in these lovely beach baskets.

An old fashioned bathing box

It has a big sandy beach.





Many people were sunbaking – a bit strange for us with all our skin cancer education. The shore is very flat so the tide goes out a long way but comes in quite quickly. The sea level rises two to three metres so you have to be on your guard!



It was a very fine soft mud. The kind you pay a lot of money to be covered in at a beauty spa.

This was a very relaxing day ending with a grill (bbq) at their place.



Wilhelmshaven


The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke opening for some yachts, once the greatest swing bridge in Europe, now 100yrs old.


Liane’s cousin Jurgen, wife Sabine and son Sebastian took us to Wilhelmshaven. First we climbed over a submarine at the Marine museum. Then we had a tour of the harbour. It is a very important German Port. During the Second World War it was the main operating base for the German Navy so the allied forces tried to wipe Wilhelmshaven off the map and managed to destroy two-thirds of it. Today it is still the main naval base as well as a large port for oil products.


Dive! Dive!

Full Steam Ahead!

We visited a nice little aquarium with native animals from the North Sea including seehunds (seals).


After that we returned to Oldenburg and wandered through the city. We had “tea” in a tea room. In North Germany it is quite a ceremony when you have your cup of tea. First you put in a lump of sugar, called candy, into a dainty little cup. Then you pour the tea (each person has their own pot or flavour) then you pour your milk or cream but you mustn’t stir. It sort of gives the tea a three layered effect. First you taste the milk, then the tea, then you get the sugary syrup at the end.

The day ended with a lovely grill (bbq). The next morning we had the most magnificent breakfast I have ever seen.

3 comments:

Simon said...

Hi Rex. That 'Tea' sounds weird! Was it nice??

Rex and Liane said...

This whole German food thing is no good if you are on a low fat diet!!

Yes, the tea is OK but I would prefer a good ol' mug of tea with NORMAL low fat milk.

You generally only get small containers of coffee creme to whiten your coffee or tea.

Anonymous said...

You poor things I can see that you are being starved by those nasty relatives.I don't know how the 2 of you are surviving what with only cake, desserts, and all those grills and whats more only beer and sweet tea to wash it down. Don't worry we will fatten you up on your return with a big BBQ and desserts as well as plenty of beer and good wine.So keep up the show not long to go before your both back into our very caring and safe hands. Cheers NOEL