husum harbour in low tidal conditions.
visiting the north sea was a definite goal in our vacation plans since it wasn't too far off. eckernförde & husum are only an 1 hour drive from each other, which we thought was the perfect distance for a day trip. and husum delivered. at least i think so. unfortunately it was raining heavily most of the time so exploring was scaled down to a minimum. it was the perfect weather, though to visit the north sea museum, which was really interesting, not only in content & exhibitions, but most definitely because it was an architectural jewel! i get to that later in the post.
the little streets of husum & the inner city were really charming, too. i bet on nice summer days it must be so nice to take a stroll around, not only through the city streets, but also the park of the castle or along the north sea shores. i feel like our little trip was enough to get myself interested in the city, so i definitely hope to revisit in the future. i learned that one of germany's most important writers, theodor storm, was born here & coined the term 'the grey town by the sea' i used in my title. he wrote a novella called 'the rider on the white horse', a story that probably every german knows ( or at least the people who had to read it in school ). it is one of my most favourite novellas, because it's so realistic & haunting & such an intriguing piece of work. it's about a dike count who develops a better way to build dikes to protect the rural population along the north sea shores when the life-threating danger of flooding was still palpable & concrete. it's a really sad story, but at the same time breath-takingly beautiful.
the north sea is a whole lot wilder than the baltic sea and the climate often very harsh & rough. it is also a tidal sea, so you get to experience low & high tide as well, which i personally think of being the most amazing thing. when you visit the baltic sea you will notice that there's practically no tidal movement. that's because the baltic sea is only connected with the north sea through a very small strait, which basically withholds the whole tidal effect that you experience at the north sea. there's only a rise of about 30 cm and you only notice it if you inspect the shores closely. i think the effect is much stronger & more visible the closer you get to the strait, but i could be wrong about that. anyway, since i always only knew what the baltic sea was like until about 3 years ago ( when we finally visited borkum island and had our first encounter with the north sea ), it is still such a novel concept to me, the tidal sea. meaning, that i still get amazed by it. so of course i got really excited when we arrived in husum and there was NO WATER in the harbour. because, duh, ships resting on muddy sea ground is so surreal!
our stay in husum, while very brief, was one of my favourite days of our vacation. it basically involved a stroll around the city, a visit to a museum & a walk on a dike by the north sea, complete with a sheep encounter. later in the day we stopped by a little tapas bar that was owned by a guy who was the equivalent of captain bluebear, especially when it came to the stories he told us. he was a complete scaramouch who got my MOM drunk. and y'all... my mom never gets drunk. she was sick on the drive home. it was quite an experience, haha.
but on to the pictures, right?
the inland port was practically dry when we arrived, except of a little tide gate.
in the back you can see the city hall of husum, which was once a dockyard.
better picture of the city hall with the landmarked slipway & the buoy tender 'hildegard' in the front. the city hall was built in 1988/89 and is a perfect example of post-modern architecture, which you probably know, showcases a wild mix of historic & modern architectural styles ( they lovingly call it collage architecture because of this ).
there was quite a lot of interesting architecture to discover. from modern to historic, you could find everything. what i liked about it was the fact that the modern buildings were incorporated into the historic scenery in a very harmonic way.
more of the inland port, the city hall & impoldered ships.
das brötchen & tine cafe are a joined coffee house slash bakery. the little houses were mainly built in the 18th/19th century. on the left you can see the fashion boutique c.j. schmidt. that building is a kid of the 70ies.
the marktplatz with marienkirche ( st. mary church ).
the tine fountain & marienkirche again. the neo-classical church was built from 1829 to 1833 by christian frederik hansen, after the old church had to be torn down because of disrepair. the inside is purely white, very airy & simplistic.
the tine fountain ( from 1902 by adolf brütt ). tine is the town's landmark. the art nouveau fountain depicts a young fisher woman - tine - who directs her view towards the north sea. she's an allegory for the main professions of the city of husum: fishery, seafaring ( the rudder in her hand ) & cattle trade ( there are several bullocks on the fountain as well ). fun fact: the dutch slippers she's wearing were actually not typical for north-frisian women. some people also got upset because tine looked so poor in them, but the creator of the fountain insisted to keep the slippers, because no one would see the poverty in the sculpture, but a proud & healthy woman, which is all the abundance & wealth you could find in the word. i really liked tine and i kind of identified myself with her as well, maybe because i'd like to be a little like her? i don't know. she looks very strong & proud & like she knows her worth. i guess it's a secret desire of mine... to be someone like her.
inside the church. the interior was very symmetrical & clean-looking, not exactly what i like in churches ( i do like the gothic & romanesque styles a lot more, i like my churches dark & moody :P ).
the altar area was really beautiful, though, with all the gold & the classical elements. i also liked the stars on the ceiling.
back in the streets of husum. the entry to the kulturkeller, a little venue for concerts, readings etc.
the rain made tiny artworks inside plants 😍
husum castle. the northern renaissance building was erected in the 16th century and is the last existing castle on the west coast of schleswig-holstein. it houses a museum, a music school, various foundations & a cute cafe ( in which we had some coffee & tasty cake - and look at this little corner of the cafe, i loved it lots ). we didn't explore it any further & only took a small stroll around the park after our coffee date. i liked the brightly coloured flags on the facade of the castle, it made it look very friendly, don't you think?
strangely enough i was unable to shoot a proper full picture of the castle. ah, well.
we moved on to flee the rain and decided to check out the north sea museum inside the ludwig-nissen-haus. along the way i discovered an art nouveau gem.
and then i caught sight of the north sea museum aka the nissen house aka the 'omg an art deco house'. the style is actually not art deco but brickstone expressionism ( which i later learned was a precursor to art deco architecture and is original to germany / netherlands ). i ADORE the gable sculptures! they depict an ox, a triton horse & a phoenix ( created by alwin blaue ). the building itself was planned by georg rieve ( and endowed by ludwig nissen, a us based diamond trader who was born in husum before he made his way over to america ). now i want to find all the brickstone expressionist buildings of the world. i like this style ( & art nouveau / art deco as well ) A LOTTA LOT, feels so very aesthetic to me. i like that they are like transitions from the old architectural styles to modern ones & that the styles are basically melting into each other.. ah, i can't really describe to you what that feels like. it gives me brain orgasms basically.
the museum is all about the history of the region of north frisia - which the city of husum is basically the capital of. it has various exhibitions, from art to city history to north sea related things like dike construction & living on a holm. it was very informatory & demonstrative. i liked the art exhibitions the most & was completely enamoured with the staircase of the museum. i've included some mobile photos of the inside, because i don't like shooting pictures with my big ass camera inside museums.
it was a dream 😍 the balustrade had incorporated zodiac symbols, there was art nouveau/art deco elements everywhere and... i don't know... i completely fell in love?
this beautiful lady & her dog were also part of the interior. she's also a product of adolf brütt, the creator of the tine fountain.
back outside again, with a more detailed look at the ceramic sculptures inside the gables.
we made our way back to the city and passed by even more beautiful brickstone buildings, albeit they weren't of the expressionistic kind, but more medieval.
into the direction of the marienkirche again on großstraße. look at that gothic beauty in the middle. pure delight, i'm telling you.
the theodor storm hotel. it was once a bank, but conversed into a brewery with joined hotel later on. i think it still has a very banky character.
just around the corner, the gate house of husum castle. a beautiful renaissance building.
i just can't get enough of all the brickstone work. why do i like it so much?
we returned to the inland port & behold, the water was back!
the boats were swimming again!
the outer harbour. we made our way out of the city & onto the dikes. in the back the silos for the agricultural company atr landhandel.
then we glimpsed the north sea & the dockkoog dikes. we didn't explore further because we actually wanted to drive up north to maybe find a better beach for an evening walk & find somewhere to grab a bite as well.
we sat down on a bench and enjoyed the first rays of sunshine of the day, while a big herd of sheep approached us with loud baaing. they came very close and we got to share a little bit of space. it was a peaceful scene.
the sun did not hide for the rest of the evening. i shot this little scene on beltringharder koog, a huge piece of diked marshland not far away from husum. we were on the lookout for somewhere to have dinner ( which we were very unsuccessful at, which was the reason why we didn't stay longer ). we later found our little tapas bar in schobüll & well, you already read know how that ended :P
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