This summer we spent some days in Dangast, a little town on the German North Sea coast, about 200 km from Puddingtown. The coast here is part of the German Wadden Sea National Parks or “Nationalpark Wattenmeer”. The sandy beaches around Dangast taper off into dark, almost oily mud (layers of estuarine silts, clays and marine animal detritus). Twice a day the entire bay – called the Jade Estuary (Jadebusen) – is submerged and exposed by the tide.
Many come to Dangast for the mud’s supposed health benefits. People slide around in the mud, coat themselves from head to toe or go mudflat hiking.
We applied the mud to Jan’s legs and Leo’s exzema, with mixed results: their skin got really soft and healed well, but they both felt a little ill the next day.
We shared a cute 2 bedroom vacation home with our friends, Michaela and Leif. The two boys had a great time. Everyday they could play with their “best friend”, usually at the beach or in the sandy driveway. Together they played in Michaela’s car (Leo’s idea), learned how to pee in the bushes, tried to fly a kite and graduated from hitting to teasing and name-calling each other.
The flat coast line made for great biking, particularly along the sheep covered dikes. Leo and Leif road in a waggon pulled by Jan’s bike. They shared cookies, squabbled over space and slept all the way home.
Leo especially liked our boat ride out to the lighthouse of Arngast. The lighthouse was built on a sandbank that buried the parish church of Arngast during the storm floods of the 12th and 16th centuries. Hearing the boat’s motor and watching the boat glide through the water fascinated Leo. He spoke about the boat and the lighthouse for many days.
We all enjoyed a walk through the “Neuenburger Urwald“, an uncultivated forest with many trees well over 400 years old. The 6 km hike was a challenge for the inexperienced walker Leif, but after his protest proved futile he completed the round with flying colors.
In Bremerhaven we visited the “Klimahaus Bremerhaven 8° Ost“, an exhibition which takes it’s visitors on a journey through the earth’s climate zones. The journey follows the 8th degree of longitude, begining and ending in Bremerhaven. The 8th degree of longitude also passes through the Samoan Islands, which felt to us like beeing teleported to Hawai’i. Leo noticed this too when he saw the imitation of the pacific ocean and pointed out to us where the sun goes down in Hawai’i (as seem from Waikiki).
Of course fresh fish was the number one food, and it tasted best pan fried by Jan. I also enjoyed the fresh North Sea Shrimp or “Granat”. You can buy them straight off the boat, unpeeled for €7 per kilo. With the shells they are crunchy, have a slightly smokey aroma and go perfectly with the local brew called “Tide“. Another great way to have Granat is with eggs on German black bread.
Dangast again? Sure!
More pictures of our vacation in Dangast.
