Stormy

We all had gotten sunburned on our one ideal sunny beach day and it seemed as if I have gotten a sunburn on my lips. By Wednesday it started to blister and when I woke up on Thursday my lip was so swollen and blistered, something needed to be done, beside the horrendous pain, I could not really eat or drink. Thanks to the internet and a quick search, I found out the cause (a viral infection caused by UV) and needed to bike to the next village for some medicine. Inbetween rainshowers we took a chance and went on a little bike trip. We took a different path this time, overlooking the sound side, meeting a lot of horses, cows and birds and biking through wheat, rye and corn fields. What a beautiful bike ride.

It was fun to be just the three of us - my mother opted out of the bike trip - and so it was a bit more relaxed. We walked through the town, picked post cards for the friends and had some crepes to eat and German Sprite, which is made with real sugar and has lots of lemon and tastes really good, even though not healthy. It gave the kids enough energy to bike back and instead of going home, we went to the old windmill in town, which has a little mill museum, exhibits paintings and people can go up and see all the parts and working of the mill - very neat. I don't recall ever having been inside one actually.


We were supposed to meet my mom at the beach, so we did the beach preparation thing, strip naked and put sunscreen from top to bottom. I cannot stand doing it and it takes forever for one adult and two kids. By the time we are in bathing suits and have everything packed and are about to bike to the beach, my mom comes around the corner in a mix of excitement and agitation. Apparently the strong wind had pushed so much water onto the beach, it flooded everything and they had to move our 'Strandkorb' to safety. And really, the beach was quite flooded, it was awesome, it was like gigantic tidepools everywhere.

The wind was pushing the water with such a force, the waves did not even crash one after the other, it was one chaotic toppling of waves over the other and it was fun to stand there and get completely soaked. As usual, Johanna sat shivering in the 'Strandkorb', while Sophie and I where hollering with joy at every single wave. But even the two of us got a bit cold after a while and we retreated to the safety of the 'Strandkorb' for a snack. Look at the picture below, that was all sand just an hour or two earlier.



Of course my structure (above) that I had errected in a fit of the creative curse and that withstood all the rain and wind of the days before was gone now, how nice of my mom to have saved the shells though. After a while feeling cold and being blasted by sand lost its appeal and in a moment between rain we headed to the little restaurant at the edge of the dunes. Hot chocolate while watching the raindrops has its own beauty I have to say. There is something very comforting in that.




While the children were emailing friends and family, which takes forever since they cannot type and Sophie corrects Johanna's spelling constantly, I was determined to believe that the weather at the coast changes within minutes and that there will be a great sunset. I actually took the bike at 9.30 at night to fight my way against the storm to the beach. But when I got there, not one ray of sun was allowed to penetrated the gray wall of clouds and the sand storm was so fierce by then, that I could not walk very far at all and had to give up. At least I had an easy ride back with the wind pushing me home :)