Good bye Amrum

Why must everything end? Just a rhetorical question really, but some things in life end too quickly. Our last day came so quickly. There is something quite peculiar about vacations. We spend so much time planning them and then we have this huge chunk of time filled with anticipatory joy. For month I have been looking forward to our week on Amrum and on a daily basis did I catch my thought drifting there. And then, all of a sudden, faster than you can say 'blink', is is over, done with, past and you find yourself on the way home.


Despite our hopes and prayers did we not succeed in coaxing the weather to be splendid, but no use bitching and moaning, on with the raincoats and off we go. I took the kids to the light house that we had been seeing all week. It is the tallest on the whole North Sea Coast and the kids wanted to climb up. I was really tempted to do so as well, but with my leg still not being in great shape, I decided that 295 steps are not in my best interest. The kids were up in no time, I was very surprised. I took pictures of them while they took pictures of me taking pictures of them. They had a little light house festival going on and the mood was great, who cares whether the sky is gray, if your heart is full of sunshine.
All week we had waited for a visit at the Friesen Cafe, a very, very old cafe in Nebel where the original Friesentorte originates. I had a piece on the neighbouring island of Sylt many years ago and still remember every bite. It is a very cozy place and it was packed with people - everybody was tired of rain, wind and sand storms. Your would not guess from the photo, because I took that earlier in the week :)

So all four of us ordered the Torte and none of us broke out into song over it or danced a dance of joy or hollered in excitement. The one I had decades back was very different, maybe not the original, but better. I will have to make it myself, no doubt about that.


I have to lie when I say we did not mind the last day being so gray and rainy. We were a bit disappointed. We went to the beach and did not even go to our 'Strandkorb', instead threw the key into the box at the rental station. The sand was blowing everywhere, we still have sand in our ears and shoes and bags now.


There was hardly anybody on the beach, the life guards were gone, the vendors too. Just not the best day. We went to the restaurants in the dunes and had something to eat, all in a bit of a glum mood. I was sure that the sun would give me a great sunset on the last night, but like the night before - nothing. The next day we packed and cleaned and hung out in the garden playing soccer between rainshowers until it was time to leave. We were all a bit depressed, nobody wanted to leave. The kids distracted themselves with games and so did the adults.

Having a long ferry and train ride home gives you plenty of time to think and ponder. There was one very clear theme centered around expectations. Sometimes expectations are our enemies, when the stakes are high, we are more likely to stumble. We had a certain picture in our head and were disappointed on some occasions. Our week was nonetheless wonderful and fantastic, but it did occur to me that sometimes it is better not to have precomposed pictures in our head, as they are often bound to fail.

There are good days and bad days, that is life. While being on vacation we are trying to make every moment great to have fun now and to create wonderful memories for tomorrow. Some days turn out way better than our expectations and on other days we are faced with reality not living up to them. Or things just go differently and that is usually not a problem, if we go with the flow. I had no expectations regarding Fish'n'Chips or kite flying and that was surprisingly great. I thought I would eat the cake of my life and did not. I expected the kids to fall asleep early every night from the fresh air at the sea and they went to bed late every night. I did anticipate for them to be scared of waves and they were not. Lesson learned? Maybe not, it is hard not to imagine, but maybe I can make anticipations less concrete.

All in all our week was great and I wish to go back for a longer stay some day and I have no expectations for going to Copenhagen/Hillerød, except that I am very happy to meet an old friend and to get to know his family.