On June 14^th we leave home and drive to Wilhelmshaven, a Northsee harbour town in Northern Germany. They are building a new container terminal and that is why we don't find the lights we are looking for. They are building new ones at the moment. We have lunch and continue to Brake, a village on Weser River. We cross Weser by ferry to Sandstedt and continue to Cuxhaven on River Elbe. Our hotel has a view on the passing ships to and from Hamburg.

The next morning (June 15th) we are on the 9:00 ferry to Neuwerk. Neuwerk is a small island in Wattenmeer National Park, at the edge of Elbe and Northsee. If the tide is out, you can walk there, but at high water there is this 1,5 boat ride. The island belongs to Hamburg and the Neuwerk Leuchturm (Lighthouse) is the oldest building in Hamburg, dating back to 1380. Jan climbs to the top. After a couple of hours we go back to Cuxhaven and pick up another backpack and take the 17:45 ferry Cuxhaven - Hamburg, all the way over River Elbe. It takes until 20:15 before we arrive. Our hotel is next to the ferry stop. We see lots of lights along the river with its many sand banks.

June 16^th we are back on the same ferry (to see the lights from a different angle) to Cuxhaven and on to Helgoland. Helgoland is a red rocky island in Northsee (used to be British for quite some time). We see the village, cross to the small island of Düne (5 minutes ferry) where the airport is and Jan climbs the rocks for de good photo of Helgoland lighthouse. Meanwhile rain is pouring so I am nog going with him and guard the backpack in a shelter. The ferry back to Cuxhaven leaves at 16:00 and we stay in the same hotel as the first night.

Next morning we drive to Wischhaven on River Elbe and cross by ferry to Glückstadt. The sky is very dark and we have more rain. Later it gets better when we walk around Glückstadt where River Stör enter the Elbe. After lunch we continue to Husum, another fishing town on Wattenmeer.

June 18^th we drive to Nordstrand, a former island, attached to the mainland by a dam. We take the ferry to the island of Pellworm back and forth, because it goes very infrequently and the weather remains very wet. Later we have a nice rainbow from our hotel balcony.

Sunday 19^th we drive to Niebüll. There we drive onto the SyltShuttle, a train that takes cars across Hindenburgdam to the island of Sylt. It is the only way to reach the island by car, there is no road, so you either take your car on the shuttle, or you go by train and leave your car in Niebüll. Arrival in Westerland at about 11:30, continue to Rantum where our hotel apartment for the next 3 night is. We have lunch in Hörnum in the south of the island.

Next morning back to Hörnum for the lighthouse, a nice red and whte one on top of some dune. We dirve north after that, past Westerland, to Kampen to see the black-and-white lighthouse. Just outside of Kampen we have lunch with a view of Northsee. In Westerland we can't reach the beach because the hotel has forgotten to give us a Kurkarte. Everywhere in Germany you have to pay to get entry to beaches (that's probably why so many Germans come to beaches elsewhere in Europe, those are free).

Tuesday 21 we drive to List and Lister Ellenbogen, the north top of Sylt. It has two small lighthouses List Ost and List West and the area is beautiful with white sand dunes, wild flowers and a lot of sheep. Back in List we get the ferry to the Danish island of Rømø. We hae lunch there and find a street with a name Hollander Street. Funny!

We drive back to Westerland on Wednesday and the Syltshuttle of 10:00 takes us back to Niebüll, where we arrive at 10:45. We continue to the village of Dagebüll with a lighthouse that looks like a little church. We park our car, take our backpacks and board the ferry to Föhr Island (about 45 minutes). In Wyk, the main village, we have lunch in a fish restaurant before we continue to the island of Amrum. After arrival in Wittdün we walk to our very nice hotel (modern room with a lot of space and a lovely restaurant).

Thursday 23 we buy a bus ticket for the day to see the island. Amrum has everything: very wide beaches, sand dunes, forest, heather, fields and nice villages. We go from Wittdün to bus stop Leuchtturm. The red- and white lighthouse has been built on a dunes and it takes 123 steps up to reach the entrance of the lighthouse. Jan climbs another 172 steps for a wonderful view, while I take a picture with a tree trunk in front of it (that's what it is Joy). We take the bus again to Norddorf where we walk to the Northsee beach, called Kniepsand (used to be just a sand bank next to the island, but is connected to Amrum now). We have a very clear view of Hörnum on Sylt, where we were a couple of days ago. Back to Nebel in the center of the island for lunch at a small bakery. In Wittdün we visit Südstrand (Northsee-side) and Nordstrand (Watten-side). Sunset is beautiful!

We walk back to the ferry on the 24^th and have a direct ride to Dagebüll (takes 90 minutes). We get out car and drive past Husum to the fishing village of Tönning for lunch. After that on to Büsum for our last two night. We take a walk that afternoon (with a Kurkarte) along the coast and all the Strandkorbe (beach chairs you share with two persons, typical for Germany). We visit the Museum Harbour and walk back to our hotel (not too good I am afraid).

Saturday 25^th, the day that Jan and I met 40 years ago in Ireland), we drive across Eidersperrwerk, a dam to enable ships to go from the river Eider to see and also to protect the land from high tides and storm floodings. We find the lighthouse in Sankt Peter Böhl, have coffee in Sankt Peter Ording and visit the Westerheversand lighthouse, the most beautiful of all. After lunch back to Büsum.

Sunday 26^th June we started driving a 9:00 and arrived home around 16:00. There was a lot of traffic and working on the roads caused some delay. The weather here has now turned to very warm.

If all goes well, we will leave for Canada at the end of July and we will send you updates of our Newfoundland tour from there.