The Baltic at Howacht, Schleswig-Holstein
More views of the Baltic
Michael and Imke at the pier (courtesy Judith)
Antje’s hair fighting the sea breeze (courtesy Judith)
Kai getting ready to get his feet wet (courtesy Judith)
Dueling photographers, I
Dueling photographers, II
Walking on the dyke
Mark on a rock (no effective camouflage)
Walk in Schoenboeken after a squall
Cornflowers near Judith’s
More cornflowers
Judith’s second photo safari of the day
Michael getting exercise
We woke up to astonishingly cool and rainy weather, but made our way to “the main house” from our cabin about 8:30 for breakfast, since that was the time we’d agreed on–and after some consultation of the radar and weather forecast, decided to go ahead with our outdoor plans, i.e. going to the Baltic coast, less than an hour from here, since Michael insisted that there was a “hole” in the cloud cover only over that particular area in an otherwise rainy and stormy coastline. As it turned out, we really did end up driving out of the rain, after a slightly damp visit to a cute little town (Luetjeburg) on the way. By the time we were in the lovely little resort town of Howacht, in a little bay just a bit south of Kiel, the rain had ceased and we had quite a bit of sunshine as we walked on the beach–in fact, I managed to get a partial sunburn, as I noticed later in the day, since I was wearing a tank top with a cardigan! It was my first ocean day this year, and it’ll be the last until December, but absolutely lovely–not warm enough to swim or sit at the beach, but great for a walk both with our feet in the ocean and then, on the way back to the car, on top of the sandy cliffs that are typical of this region. As it got more cloudy again after a couple of hours of dry weather, we drove on to another visiting spot, a former estate called Panker, now turned into shows and a park area, but there was no coffee shop, so we stopped instead on the way back for the obligatory coffee and cake, and came home a little before 5. Judith, Mark and I took advantage of another break in the various forms of rain and drizzle to take another walk around the village, and the two of them took tons of photos and talked photography while I simply enjoyed the lush green and the many summer flowers around us. We had dinner at the apartment, and Imke, Michael and Judith watched a movie while Mark and I sat in the kitchen with our computers (and Kai with his in another room), so it was a quiet end to a nice if somewhat damp day! The second night in the cabin was just like the first, with the last squall of rain sounding very pleasant on the roof above us. I was very happy to be dry and warm and snuggled up with Mark. 🙂