borkum: the crossing.

visiting the island of borkum was a first for me. i've never made vacations on an island before, and i've never been to the north sea as well. a friend of mine was residing on borkum for 6 months and she invited me to come visit her and get to know 'her' island. my parents and me went for it, as we always wanted to see what the north sea has to offer. and it did not disappoint! the wadden sea is something i had yet to experience, the baltic sea has close to no tidal movements, therefore it was new to me to see the same beach in different conditions throughout the day. unfortunately, because of unideal weather conditions, we didn't go on a mudflat hiking tour, but i'm sure i will get around that next time i'll be visiting.

the journey & stay up there made me want to discover the region east frisia even more and i have a plan for next year already doing a little hiking trip from wilhelmshaven to emden and then revisiting borkum for a few days. it's still in a planning phase, but let's hope i can make it true :) it would also be some kind of discovery for myself - can i handle a trip on my own, will i have some eye opening experiences - these kind of things.

so the crossing to borkum island was rather unagitated and calm, but i heard that it can also be very bumpy and uneasy. here are some pictures i shot before we landed at the borkum harbour.

on our way out of the harbour of emden. the river ems flows into the north sea and is the connection to borkum as well. it functions as a tidal river that splits up in west ems and east ems before the north sea waters gulp it down.

there is still land to see, but i almost looks like the sky and the water melt into each other.

we passed by cute sailing ships.

and dutch police boats. the netherlands are very close here, in fact, borkum is closer to dutch borders than anything else in the german north sea.

on the dutch side of the borders is a huge coal-fired power station, which is actually not a pretty sight. but it still makes for an interesting coastal motive. from borkum you also can see the power station.

i have a tiny obsession with boats and ships on the sea.

we had wonderful weather as soon as we were out on the open sea.

and borkum soon was in sight, too!

as we arrived we got the first glimpse of how low tide looked. when the tide is high, you cannot stand on the tip of the groyne anymore. and the beach behind it, is also gone.

i loved the look of those flatlands. like a desert, but with much more water.

the tiny dots on here are birds and seals. seals are especially well known on borkum, because they inhabit the sandbanks around it. we even made a tour to one of those banks to see them up close! i've never seen wild seals before and this was such a special experience.

rolling into the harbour.

we met up with my friend and her boyfriend in the evening to eat something nice and talk about their experiences and life on the island.

this building is called 'secret love' and was formerly used as some kind of greeting commitee. when a boat sailed by or a ship they were hoisting up the flags of the ships going by and also greeted them via morse code and radio. now it's a restaurant ( we weren't inside it, though ).

everything was really calm that evening.

cormorants enjoying a nice drying time. in the back are the outskirts of rottumeroog, a little island that is inhabited. the navigational beacon is always in sight.

may '20: seeking modernism.

super pink rhododendron buds emerging! i start off this post with some flower images to appreciate and praise the time of spring, especially the month of may, which is the most abundant spring month to me personally. all the blossoms, all the fresh greens amass during may, and my heart and mind are hardly ever able to not frolick & gush about it all! for this post i am returning to one walk i did with the sole purpose to find a special mid-century villa in königstein ( which would ultimately prove to be a failure - i did find it, but i couldn't approach it properly to have a good look at it and only ever saw a tiny bit of the garden/forest side ). the whole walk was not a letdown, though, as i did find some other mid-century & brutalism gems and thoroughly enjoyed walking through the old spa town in the taunus mountains. rhododendron shrubs yield all kinds of different blossoms in myriad colours, they are easy to breed, therefore a wide variety can be found all over the wor...

july '20: lake petersdorf discoveries and a plea against genocide.

the green wild meadows of malchow's sandfeld. in the west of malchow there is a big chunk of forest that spans towards plauer see, a widely 'uncultivated' area these days, but it hasn't always been this way. in my last post i mentioned the nazi munition factory that had been built in these woods, away from prying eyes of their enemies and where they also built an external subcamp for the concentration camp ravensbrück. exactly these woods we explored on a pretty sunny day, betraying the darkness that happened around these parts. isn't it weird that there are places in this world that were built or used by dark forces and horrible regimes and you vist them 80 years later and they are the most peaceful places you can imagine? sometimes my brain can't cope with the contrast of knowing what was in the past and what the present looks and feels like. it definitely leaves me with a strange impression often, kind of like a little sting in my heart and brain that is not ...

the america chronicles '22: austin I - city of the violet crown.

sighted on the way to austin: the texas colorado river . but beware, this is not the iconic colorado river ( 2.334 km long ) that has its source in the rocky mountains and confluences in the gulf of california, flowing through the grand canyon and other magnificent landscapes along the way, but this is texas' very own colorado river with a length of 1.387 km starting in the llano estacado plains in northwestern texas, and eventually ending up in the gulf of mexico at matagorda bay . why there are two colorado rivers in the US, i really don't know 😅 my guess is, that they were named by two people in different times, not knowing of the other's colorado river discovery. we'll meet the texas colorado river again in austin, so i will probably bestow more information on you eventually ;D a random road squirrel, also found on the way to austin. austin is about 187 miles ( 300 km ) away from baytown and is situated west from there in central texas. it sits at the foot of th...

ghost of nature.

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