Our Day up north wasn’t wasted, with a lovely 70km cycle along the Baltic coastline, with forests, dikes and dunes on a lovely autumn day.
Bremerhaven has been a bit more interesting that our German mechanics let on. We spent the better part of the day going through the Klimahaus – a really interesting concept! The exhibits show cultures, landscapes, flora and fauna from 8°E Longitude. Filled with more than enough to keep us busy for another 5 hours or so – we are the slowest museum couple out there – the highlights include a tropical fish area (Samoa), Antarctica (freezing walk), tropical rain forests (really hot & humid) and Sahara (really hot & dry) – and to sum up, the idea that mid-latitudes can have a bit of all of these at various times of the year. Add to all that a great harbour area for old sailing vessels – and the last remaining U-boat of its type, and it’s been a fairly good day.
We are camped right next to a major dike fronting onto one arm of the harbour. Given a quite dramatic tidal range that revealed huge mud flats glistening in the setting sun – absolutely beautiful.
We spent the earlier part of the day looking at routes to take us down south. The planned version is: Emden tomorrow – Giethoorn Monday – Naarden Tuesday – Amsterdam Wed/Thur/Fri – Broek in Waterland Saturday – Marken Sunday – Zaanse Schans Monday – Leiden Tuesday – The Hague Wed/Thur – Delft Friday – Kinderdijk Saturday. That gives us around 600km over 2 weeks, which will help us manage our growing diesel deficit!
So, Van is sorted out with a new front fender, Fiat updates, and acknowledgement that the Fiat oil indicator (5 bars showing full or not) is really crap and best ignored. We’ve filled the freezer with meat for the next two weeks, topped up our wine and whiskey cellar, and are prepared for a relatively early start – given that sunrise is now closer to 7:30, take this with a pinch of salt!
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