Day 18 - Langeness!

The days are really going by so quickly and I have been eagerly waiting for our visit to Langeness (pronounced Langaness).  It has been the 2nd highlight  of our tripe after Lisa and Tobi's wedding.

We greeted our lovely hosts Anke and Fiete (pronounced Unka and Feeta - if there is an 'e' at the end of a word it has an 'a' sound) they live with Anke's Father, Christian and step mother Helma.  

Fiete drove us from their house down to Dagbull to wait for Fiete's father to take us over to Langeness.  He was already there waiting for us and he looked exactly the same as he did in a documentary about Langeness we saw last year when Fiete and Anke came to visit us on their 11 month world trip.  I felt I was meeting a movie star!!

OMG! Langeness is A-MAY-ZING and a fantastic experience!  

It's a stunning place and I felt so privileged to be taken over to the island in a little motorised cart called a Lore (pronounced Laura). Tourists aren't allowed to go to the island by Lore (they go by boat) but we were part of the family for the day so it was alles gut. There were actually tourists taking photos of us in the Lore ...... tourists taking photos of the tourists haha!

The Lore that takes us to Langeness

Our driver, Fiete's father - Hanni

I'll try to explain the region for you.  Langeness is part of an island system off the coast of Germany close to the Danish border. Langeness is called a Hallig as it is all land but when the storms come during winter the whole island goes under water except for the houses on the wafts (houses are perched on mounds above the low lands - usually a group of houses are on the one waft).  When the storm has gone the water eventually goes down.  Nothing can grow on the land as the soil is too salty.

This is how it can look during a storm

It took us about half an hour to get to Langeness but we stopped off at Oland to look a round which is half way to Langeness.  In the map above Oland is the first island before Langeness.

When a Lore comes the other way we have to go off to the side and wait till they pass.

Having so much fun......and it's a bit chilly too!

First Hallig Oland

Some of the different Lore's people have

The thatched roofs are amazing!

You have to be careful of the tides so we went over about 1:30pm on the low tide and the land near the tracks is very marshy, almost like our mud flats, but on the way back at 5:30pm the tide had come in and the mud flats were now water.

On our way now to Langeness

This is low tide and you'll see on our way back the tide has really come in.

While on Langeness we met Fiete's mother, brother and sisters.   We had Kaffee and Kuchen and there was much to talk about in German and a bit of English for my sake.

The view from their garden

Kaffee and Kuchen with the family

Fiete then took us around the island to take a look at the other wafes (houses on mounds) and we had a Pharisaer (pronounced far-asia) which is coffee laced with rum and cream.

The local church

Graveyard

This how far the water has come up during the storms.  The bottom level is normal and the highest one was a really severe storm in 1825.

The original Lore was wind powered by sails 

Moss on the thatched roof.  This is a really old roof.

Our very lovely hosts Fiete and Anke.

Having our coffees with rum and cream.

Going back to the mainland

On the way to and from Langeness the swallows fly with us.  It's much like dolphins swimming in the wake of the boat.

Now the tide is coming in

Now Hanni goes back to Oland first to wait for the tide to go down.  He will then get home to Langeness about 9pm

We are now back on the mainland with Anke's father and stepmother.  

Thanks so much to Fiete and Anke for taking us over to Langeness and for Hanni and Irena (Fiete's mum and dad) for welcoming us to their home.

Oh and Anke's brother has two kittens and I immediately fell in love with them.

Tomorrow we are going to explore the island of Sylt.  It is part of the Hallig islands off the German coast.