And the trip comes to an end...

As we were riding back to my apartment in Berlin, in the S-Bahn, my dad said, "I think we've taken just about every form of transportation this trip, short of commandeering our own ship." :) He was pretty close...we went by train, car, tram, subway, bike, foot (barefoot), bus, ferry, rental car... It was a lot of traveling, from Berlin to Rügen, to Hamburg, Lübeck, through Schleswig-Holstein to Amrum and back to Berlin. A tour of northern Germany. When we arrived back at my place in Berlin, there was some kind of street fest going on in the neighborhood, with live music, food and drink. We went to the Austria Restaurant for dinner, for one last good hearty German meal with good beer. Then we walked through the crowded streets and headed back home to pack. It was an amazing two weeks! Thanks so much, mom and dad, for everything! We'll have so many memories for our whole lives!

bikes piled up everywhere

 

Amrum III: more explorations

 Here are some more pictures from biking around, mostly on Friday, exploring the last un-ridden streets of the island. We stopped in Nebel for a piece of Kuchen and a hot drink again (or, for Michael, a cold one).

 My dad cutting up the smoked eel we got. We actually preferred the fish we had got the previous day.

 

Below are some pictures from Thursday morning, when we biked to the lighthouse. My dad said it figures, that he would go up the Amrum lighthouse before he's ever been to Split Rock. That's how it goes though...you never do these kinds of "touristy" things where you live.

you can see the "craters" of sand dunes here

cafe with "beach baskets"

Amrum II: Wattwanderung (mudflat hike) to Föhr

 Thursday we did a mudflat hike (Wattwanderung). The landscape around the North Frisian islands is shaped  by the North Sea, and especially the tides. When it's low tide, you can do a hike between islands. The biggest one is between Amrum and the island of Föhr. There are two tidal channels that have to be crossed, so you have to do the hike with a guide so you know where to go. The hike then goes across the mudflats, over to the other island. From there they had a bus organized to bring us to the harbor town of Wyk where the ferry left to bring us back to Amrum. (see map below). The hike was about 10 km (barefoot!) and took us about 5 hrs including all the stops while the guide spoke and talked to us. (again, here is my post from 3 yrs ago for comparison...different weather!)

our guide: Dark

 

 After the hike we were dropped off in the harbor town of Wyk and had an hour or so to kill before the ferry went back to Amrum. We found a great little fish place for dinner and then took the ferry back to Amrum just in time for the night's soccer game. Unfortunately Germany didn't advance to the finals...but it was still cool to watch the game in this little town, where all the locals (and tourists) had gathered to watch. It was like a local community center, and they had set up a huge projector screen and chairs, and mats up front to sit on the floor. The mood turned pretty quickly as Italy scored once...and then again...

Rosenstr. (Rose St!)

you can see the Germany flag...optimisim for the night's game!