From Ribe (Denmark) to Husum (Germany)

We chose an aire for the night just inside Germany, but while we were driving down the last stretch along the West Coast of Denmark (Jutland), we thought we ought to visit at least one of the islands here on the Wadden Sea.  Romo is joined by a causeway accessible at all times, so we drove onto the island, and down to the southern tip.  Quite a windswept place, and must be pretty bleak in the winter.  Here we saw a ferry arriving, and discovered that it goes to Sylt (or Sol: many things seem to be bilingual) which is the next southward island in this little chain. Sylt only has a railway on its causeway connecting it to the mainland.

We didn´t want to have too much Danish money left, so we bought a cup of coffee, then carefully spent all of the money apart from about 16 pence on some cornflakes and baked beans in the local shop. (Baked beans are hard to find in Germany).

Driving back onto othe mainland, we headed toward the German border. As we approached, there were some 40kph signs, a tight bend, a narrow road with cafes and shops, and suddenly a sign saying Deutschland, and a supermarket on the German side. We wondered if the Danes in that village took a passport and a supply of Euros to do their weekly shopping ?

A few miles over the border, we remembered we had some Danish coins in a purse we keep handy for car parks. Not so smug now.

We are now in the Wadden Sea area. This is a unique environment: we drove for many miles with a sea dyke on our right hand side. The countryside here is crisscrossed with drainage ditches: agricultural land and wind pumps nestle side by side. Sheep graze on the salt marsh, and birds flock to the mud flats alongside. The water is punctuated with rows of short stakes, which seem peculiar to this area. Part of the Wadden Sea falls within Denmark, and is Denmark´s largest National Park, in fact the largest between Nordkapp and Sicily. It is a Unesco world heritage site.  Throughut its history, floods have plagued this area: many thousands of lives, hectares of land, and buildings have been lost.  The Wadden Sea is part of the East Atlantic migratory route for birds, and abour 70,000 oystercatchers come here in the winter.  It must be quite a sight.