UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site Wadden Sea

 

After our first night in Aurich, one of the middle sized towns in Ostfriesland (East Frisia), we went to have breakfast in a lovely bakery. The breakfast was divine - I chose the cheese breakfast with two rolls and three different cheeses and homemade jam. The delicious coffee is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Tuesday - of course! 

After that we took off along the country roads. Many of them are lined with trees which at that time of year were bare. Like the day before, it was gray and rather chilly.

It was Sunday, so people enjoyed a traditional Northern German game called "Boßeln". It's a kind of road bowling played on rural roads. I had read about it in books where the plot takes place in East Frisia, but I had never experienced it myself. It was interesting for us to see.

Along the way we also passed quite some windmills. They seem to be everywhere.

Our destination this morning was Bensersiel with its natural beach.

The Bensersieler Naturstrand (Bensersiel Natural Beach) is part of the Wattenmeer (Wadden Sea) which is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. The text on the sign in the following photo on the right side reads: "Please be considerate of nature and animals. For migrating wading birds and waterfowl, the Wadden Sea is the hub along the East Atlantic Flyway. Millions of wading birds, geese, ducks, gulls, and terns use this unique natural area on the North Sea coast. Because of its importance for birds, the Wadden Sea is unique in the world and protected as a national park and World Heritage Site."

Despite the gray weather I found this site pretty remarkable. It's lonesome out here, perfect if you're looking for some solitude.

The Wattenmeer is the world's largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mudflats. It is a diverse environment that inlcudes sand dunes, salt marshes and lagoons and has a rich biodiversity.

Some areas of the beach were littered with shells.

Even though it seemed like it looked the same everywhere, I was fascinated by the views we had over the beach and the Wattenmeer. This looks very different during high tide.

I loved all the plants, but of many I have no idea what they are.

And just like almost everywhere, someone had built a little cairn on the beach.

We spent a long time at the beach and then walked back to the little town of Bensersiel. Guess what we did at this food truck? Yes, of course we got our Krabbenbrötchen (roll with North Sea shrimps) - how could we not? The "funny" striped chairs you see are the typical roofed wicker beach chairs we have in Germany, a Strandkorb.

Apart from the natural beach there isn't anything else in Bensersiel, so we drove to Neuharlingersiel. You might notice that many places here end with the word "siel" - Bensersiel, Greetsiel, Neuharlingersiel. "siel" is a Frisian word that means sluice or flood gate. If the name of a town or village ends with "siel" it indicates that it was built around a sluice that controls the water flow. Neuharlingersiel is also the coastal town from where the boats to the German island Spiekeroog depart. The schedule of these boats depend on the tidal schedule of course and change every day. In 2014 we left for Spiekeroog from this harbor.

In the photo above you can see one of those boats leaving for Spiekeroog in the background. They are not particularly big because they need to fit in the shipping channel of the Wattenmeer.

I liked this sculpture of fishermen.

In the following picture you see an old Stockanker on the left side - I don't know the exact translation for this, it's a kind of anchor that was used for 3000 years on sailboats in the North Sea. This one from the 16th century is made from wood and was found in 2003 between the islands of Spiekeroog and Langeoog after a storm had exposed it. The smaller anchor to the right was found in the 1980s at the same location. 

Being so close to the sea, the town needs a Hochwasserschutzmauer (flood masonry wall). This one was built in 1961 and 36 years later increased in height. We visited the café Dattein behind the wall.

Dattein is a café as well as a Kneipe (pub), very gemütlich (cozy) and charming. We wanted something warm to drink - Kaefer and I ordered each a hot chocolate (hers was with rum and mine with amaretto) and the Geek got a Grog, a classic winter drink from Ostfriesland made of rum, sugar and water and heated up. The hot chocolate was served in traditional mugs. Of course, this is also for T Tuesday.

We were warm again and ventured out for another walk on the natural beach of Schillig that was very different to the one in Bensersiel.

We were almost alone on this beach except for a few hardy people.

Finally it was our last dinner in Ostfriesland which we had in Aurich. My appetizer was a very delicious Krabbensuppe (soup with North Sea shrimp) and there's another Weißbier for T Tuesday.

Early the next morning we had breakfast at the same bakery again and then we drove back to Münster (a drive of less than two hours). The following day we were on our flight back to San Francisco. Four wonderful weeks had come to an end.