So, yesterday Ingrid and I took a trip to Germany. Yes, it's that easy, apparently. As an island dweller it's something that never ceases to thrill me; how it's possible to hop into a car/train and just go to a whole other country. In this case, it was a boat. We set off and drove north to the coast, then boarded the ferry to Borkum, an island which lies off the Dutch coast but belongs to Germany. And boy, does it belong to Germany. I mean, there was a freaking brass band with an accordian playing on the way over. From my viewpoint I couldn't quite see if there were Lederhosen involved, but I'd hazard a guess as YES. 
At 10am there were guys buying crates of beer and dancing to the oompah music. Official 'pinch-self' moment! Unfortunately the weather was total crap, to put it frankly. The trip up was just sheeting down rain, as was the trip on the boat and our whole time on the island up until about 15 minutes before we gave up and decided to catch an early ferry back. Typical? Luckily, it could hardly dampen my spirits as it was such a huge adventure
and great to spend the time together with Ingrid. In Borkum there wasn't a great deal to do other than visit souvenir stores (what a hardship!) and hide from the rain in a cafe (equipped with a waiter who greeted us with 'Moin' - a greeting I've never come across before other than in textbooks). I wasn't going to leave the island without setting foot on the beach, which was a bit of a mission in the rain. But, as I said at the time, who knows when the next time I'll see the beach will be?! (sad face!) So. Borkum. It was really cool hearing German again, and even cranking some out at the station, although the assistant clicked in about 2 seconds that I was a foreigner and automatically resorted to slowed down speech and OTT hand gestures. I think my greatest day as a language learner will come when this does NOT happen, haha. I'll let you know. We reached The Netherlands again just as the sun came out. From the car we got the view of the zillion wind turbines that dot the coastline. I'm *almost* in two minds about the turbines. On one hand, yes they are an eyesore.... but they're also kind of fascinating. They are extremely imposing and only when you drive past one at close range do you realise just how massive they are.
They kind of look like big metal flowers, right? I think it's kind of horrifying the sheer quantity of them, but there's just something about them...
Later yesterday evening we went into Hoogeveen for some late night shopping. At this point I had remembered my camera so went into tourist mode and snapped some of the bikes. I even had a photo shoot with Ingrid the night before just to prove I even rode one myself. I remain a huge fan. Look how ridicuously happy I look, it's ludicrous! :)
Until next time, love xox
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