Monday, July 9, 2012

The Baltic Sea

My friend Jana, she came to Lawrence this past fall for a six week internship, is a native of Eutin and hs been very helpful in pointing out the hot spots and local things we should see as visitors. The best things she has shown me so far took place on one great day! (and thankfully it didn't rain) Jana borrowed her dad's company van and took a few of us to see some sights.

Our journey began at one of the many beaches on the Baltic sea shore. The view was beautiful! The beach was covered with small hutches or chairs that were available for rent, Jana said the nice part about sitting in one of those while sunbathing is that you can angle the chair in such a way that the wind doesn't blow on up I and you can enjoy the heat of the sun! The weather was nice this day, not warm by any means, maybe high 60's, definitely not swimming weather in my mind, but everyone was in a swim suit in the water! You couldn't have paid me enough to get in. But we did stick our toes in, of course. I think Jana said the water was 40 degrees celsius, which was warmer than the air once you got used to it. While walking, Katie and I picked up some shells, Jana pointed out two different ones that are unique to this part of the world. I was lucky enough to find an empty snail shell. I was wary to pick it up at first because there are so many snails in Eutin after it rains that I was certain it would be alive! We also ran across some jelly fish. Apparently there are non-stinging jelly fish....I didn't know this, but it was confirmed once Jana picked one up. I touched it - very slimy, and not something I plan to do often. They were just floating in the surf right where we were walking, and of course they are see through so they are hard to see and at one point Katie stepped on one! Everyone involved was fine, just kind of scared us.

We then drove to a second shore because there were more shops and cafesso that we could get a snack. I had a lovely cup of coffee and a piece of cheesecake with strawberries on it....unfortunately I don't have a picture of it because it wasn't on my plate very long!

We had plans to go to an artsy farm, I think that is what she called it, but by the time we were done playing at the beach it was closed, so we plan to do that a different day. We then planned to go pick strawberries from a strawberry farm, but got distracted again and ended up at a very old watch tower. Jana said that when it was built it was used to look out over the land that the owner owned, or to see if someone is coming......so we could see very far. In order to get up to the top we had to pay one euro, and then walk up a very tight spiral staircase. It was so long that I started to get dizzy, but once we got to the top it was definitely worth it, the sight was beautiful! We had fun taking pictures, but we eventually had to get down because it was getting dark.

Jana then took us to a very cute old restaurant that was on the same property as the watch tower, where we had our first real northern German pilsner. And I found out something new that I wasn't aware of....it takes seven minutes to properly pour a German pils, so that it has time to settle after each pour.

The bartender who poured our drinks was a very old man with a very impressive beard, and watching him pour these beers made it almost seem like a science instead of just pouring a beer. He starts with one larger pour and lets that sit for a bit. Once he can see that it has settled he adds another spurt from the tap. I think he must have done this 15 times to each beer, it was quite fascinating to watch. It was very tasty and a great way to end our adventure day!

 

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