Day 4: Rest Day in Esens

Lucky we are staying another night in Esens/Bensersiel, so that Niklas and I can play more with the other school kids.

We get a lot of questions why we are cycling with our family instead of being at school, as is it forbidden in Germany to take kids out of school for leisure activities. Lucky us we belong to a different system!

On our rest day we visit the old centre of Esens, and do a guided walk on the "Watt", the ebbing ocean floor of the North Sea. The North Sea is a funny ocean: At low tide it disappears completely and we can walk on the ocean floor for kilometres. Only at high tide there is enough water to swim, and even then the water is very shallow for a long way from the beach.

Also, the North Sea as well as as all rivers flowing into it is completely bordered by dykes. They shelter the flat, low lands from storms and big floods. These dykes are covered in grass. Sheep graze on them. For long sections, the bicycle track leads along the dykes.

We are enjoying our well deserved first rest day.

The track between Esens and Bensersiel.

Pension Nordlicht Kappelmann, as seen in Esens.

Special treat: The owner allowed Niklas and me to sit in his fancy car.

Me with edible sea salad.

"Wattwurm": a worm living in the ebbing sands.

Walking the ocean floor. The ferry in Bensersiel uses a dredged waterway behind a stone wall.

Esens wind mill.