I will miss those views

On my way to work this morning by bike, I had another chance to watch a breathtaking sunrise. Today it looked as if the skinny branches of the tress have just been burned. I cannot get enough of those views, they always make me stop for a while and stare in awe at this outstanding performance of nature.
In about half a year my work will change and I will not go this way anymore. I hope that I won't have to go by public transportation then, cause I will miss those views over here.

Around the lake, flat tire and barbecue on the beach

This day we started off with a geocaching tour (only partially succesfull...see post below) and went 12 km around the lake. Our way lead us through beautiful forests to panoramic views at the Lake and to peaceful spots in nature where we were having a rest. The only bad thing was a flat tire on Jales bicycle....all over sudden there was loud noise and all the air went out of the tire. Fortunately it was only the valve of the back wheel and we could travel on after I found someone that I could borrow an air-pump from. The tour around the lake was really pretty. Very nice nature but...much too crowded as usual nowadays. You couldn't hardly drive 200-300 metres without facing some bike trafiic passing you by.

In the evening we went to the beach where we were surprised to see nearly none lying in the green gras for a party, a barbecue or any other activity ;-) The good thing was, that we had enough space and took out our portable one-way barbecue grill, our sausages, our bottles of beer...and had a fantastic relaxing evening. Jale had so much to do with playing on the playground and playing on the beach that she had not even any time left to go on our nerves :-)
That's how we like to spend our holidays. We don't need any luxurious hotel or health resort. After an active day, we would always prefer a self-grilled sausages and a bottle of beer near the lake, or anywhere else outside.

5 white points

Just arrived here at my office. On my way to work I saw 5 strange white points between bushes in the woods. I stopped, was very quiet and discovered those 5 points being the backs of some deers having breakfast. I tried to take a pic but they were too far and turned around already. But...that was such a peacefull scenery, I am happy that I took the long way by bike this morning.

Experience

I really admire people who are able to deal with words, to write.
A friend of mine sent me a slideshow accompanied by her thoughts. It was about a vacation in the mountains, and she simply wrote down her thoughts belonging to that special moments. The fascinating thing for me was not only the composition of words and impressive photos, but even more the very intense way of writing that enabled me to feel as if I was on that trip too.
A great experience for me. Thank you Vika!

Let's build an Ark

On sunday our 5 y.o. daughter said: "We need to find 2 animals of each kind"....so, here is a short note about the weather situation in Germany at the moment.
When I got up 2 days ago on Sunday at 6.00h a.m., it was raining "cats and dogs". We needed to drive to Hanover Airport and back that day. On our way to Hanover (appr. 125 kilometres) we saw feedlands and range drowning in rain. We discovered lakes where we have never seen some before...it did not stop raining all day.
On monday it was similar. Thank god, I went by car and not by bike cause the rain was even heavier than the day before. The weather forecast already gave out a storm warning with the danger of high tides at the coast and overflowing rivers.
Today it is tuesday and it is still rainy and stormy. All those days we had a dark grey sky with mild temperatures of about +12°C!!! Crazy...we all would prefer it 10 degrees less but more friendly.
Nature is crazy...but who drove it crazy?? I have an idea of who it was.......

Harriersand

Another sunday-another excursion. This time we went to "Harriersand". It is an island in the middle of the river "Weser". We went there to do some hiking or maybe relaxing at the beach...but the scene was a bit disappointing. One narrow road of 11 kilometres length with no possibilities to turn left or right. And the "beach" was a 5 metres wide beach, with fine white sand but with a view to the harbour and indsutrial area of the city of "Brake". Not really a place where I would like to spend more than half an hour maybe. But there were a lot of visitors there, mainly bicyclists and motorbikers.

The official info:
The island Harriersand is with its length of eleven kilometre Europe's longest river island. In the past Harriersand consisted of seven islands, which were in the course of the Weser correction and deepening through bank undercutting to one island united. With the Lower Saxony area and administration reform the 600 hectare big island became part of the community Schwanewede on the 01.03.1974.

Little holiday cottages with beach view are available for rent. On a lovely evening walk along the beach around the island one can admire the brightly illuminated neighbouring town of Brake and then enjoy a rest at the restaurant. It is also possible during the summer holidays to take the little pedestrian ferry to Brake.

The Weser's "right sidearm" is home to a little natural harbour, which is exposed to the tides so that ships have ground contact during low tide.

Knoops Park

One of our excursions led us to a "jewel" of a park. "Knoops Park" situated in the north of Bremen near the river "Lesum" was one of the nicest parks that we have seen around Bremen. It is not only the tidyness and the old, old trees (some of them more then 100 years old) that make this park special to me. But because it was founded and by an old Bremen merchant who also had kind of a castle in this park, it still has something like an aristocratic touch...a very special charactere. Hard to describe...come here and find out yourself ;-)

So, the park is about 65 hectare large, named after the founder "Baron Ludwig Knoop" (1821-1894). In 1870 the Baron gave order to the garden-architect "Wilhelm Benque" to build a park along the banks of the river "Lesum". The result was a huge park with lots of narrow, winding ways and many resting places. The area itself is a bit hilly and gives the viewer a good look over the whole scenery including the river.
Only 16 years later the castle "Schloss Muehlental" was built in the centre of the park. The castle was not really in use and none lived in there for a longer time, so, in 1933 the shabby castle was totally demolished and today there are only some rocks left that give an idea of where the castle once stood.

Reha, the last day - the end of independance

Today is the day. I have read through 3 books and 1500 pages, I drove nearly 450 kilometres by bike, I enjoyed heavy storm and rain as well as sunny days on the beach....seems as if I know every tree and every sandkorn over here now. I met good and bad people, I received lots of smiles and one person wanted to give even more to me (;-))...what else could I ask for??

And yes-it is high time to leave and say goodbye to the good time that I had over here. I enjoyed it. Never got homesick and soaked up every moment. But as always, I am beginning to get restless again. So, I don't regret the time over here but I need to leave to open another chapter in life. I feel curious, powerfull, restless again...even though I know that this will be the end of 3 weeks of independance where I was able to do whatever I wanted during my freetime.

Since many of the readers of this blog were asking me about the beautiful photos from my Reha (they aren't really that good...taken with my mobile-phone cam only, but thanks for being polite), I published them all in a web album.

Reha, day 14 - Relaxation and pirates

Today was a relaxing day again. To give you an idea of how such a relaxing day looks over here, here is my schedule for today:

9.00 Uhr Muskelentspannung / Muscle Relaxation

about 15 people sitting together in a circle, closing their eyes and listening to a psychologist who is telling them of how to consciously strain and relax their muscles.very effective way of exploring your body.

10.30 Uhr Rückenschule / Learning of how to use exercises for back problems

nothing but another lecture from a therapeut. This time about the correct way of sleeping/lying, matrazes, pillows etc.

11.30 Uhr Fango

heating up before massage

12.00 Uhr Full-body massage

with my favourite Masseuse....hmmmm

15.00 Uhr Gesprächsgruppe Schmerzpatient / Focus Group for pain patients

Together with a psychologist we tried to find about the mysery of a „vicious circle“ of pain – psychology – physiology. Now we know that this vicious circle exists and hopefully next week we will find a way to break out of it.

The physically hardest exercises were the meals today!! So, at 4.00 p.m. I jumped on my bike and drove into the wild forest for some activity and geocaching. There was a cache called “Strandpiraten (beach pirates)”. I needed a few days to solve the quests and find out about the coordinates of the cache box. Today I found it easily and the cachebox was hidden very nice. Under a tree with a fishermans net, under a plate…just like you would expect a real pirates treasure to be hidden. Fortunately Captain Black and his pirates were somewhere sailing the seven seas and I was able to log the cache alone and in silence

This days kilometres: 42,65

Overall kilometres: 300,77

Reha, day 10 - Geocaching

Today I wanted to do some geocaching again and drove about 20 kilometres by bike to the first location. That was easy but at the second location, I found out that this cache was not evenreachable by bike. So, I had to walk all the way to the cache. 3 kilometres to + 3 kilometres fro!!! That could have been a nice walk in a nature reservate, but it was sunday and many many people seemed to have a similar idea. So, the whole walk looked a bit like a Polonaise….that’s not what I like and after finding the cache hidden under a tree, I decided to not go on searching for today but to spend the rest of the day at the beach, listening to the waves and the wind, feeling the sun and salty air on my skin.

This days kilometres: 54,65 + 6 kilometres walking

Overall kilometres: 212,40

Reha, day 2 - a day by bike

This day I spent mostly on my bike. In the mornings I did 20 kilometres along the Baltic Sea Shore. I spent some time at a small Sail Boat Regatta and enjoyed my time there, lying in the sun and listening to the sound of the waves.

In the afternoon I did some more geocaching and exploring the woods north of Ahrenshoop. The forest there may be approximately 15 x 10 kilomtres so that’s a wide area there. It is even called a “jungle” and yes, there are plants of 2 ormore metres height. The terrain changes very often from swampy to white sand, from good ways to muddy paths. But everyway trees and plants. If you have had enough of woods, just look at your compass, turn direction west and after a few kilometres you will always reach the white, sandy beach of the Baltic Sea. That was fantastic! I was nearly alone there because the weather was very windy with rain in between. So I often made a break and lay down in the white sand to watch the seagulls and to see how the waves constantly trying to get back what ones belonged to the sea.

The bike routes over here are not the best. Very often they are made of concrete slabs 180 x 30 cm, and there is always some space between them. Feels as if every second there is someone hitting your bike with a hammer. So I tried to avoid those concrete slabs and tried to drive on the small 30 cm besides them.

It was a nice but tyring day. In the end I had driven nearly 60 kilometres and spent some 5 hours out in nature. My muscles were getting harder and harder and I even missed supper ( but I expected that and it was not too bad). Tomorrow I better have a rest, because on Monday I am expecting a lot of exercises and therapy waiting for me.

This days kilometres: 58,73

Overall kilometres: 86,53