My bonny lies over the ocean...

And unfortunately, my magical flying pony threw a shoe and I had to stay on this side of the ocean.  But I managed to distract myself - in the form of a week at the seaside.  How's that for a class trip?!

boarding the ferry to Amrum

Amrum is a tiny little island belonging to Germany found in the North Sea.  Funny story.  I've never been to PEI, but I know that it's small.  In my head I figured that Amrum was roughly as big as PEI (aka. small).  When I did a little research after I got home, I discovered that PEI is like a million times bigger than this island.  You can drive around PEI in roughly 2 hours - I'm pretty sure you could walk around this island in about 2 hours.  (It must have been the 2 that stuck in my head...)

But ya, back to the trip.  Upon arrival, we did what any normal person would do - drop your bags and run to the seaside to dip your toes in the ocean.  

Too bad the water was about 5 degrees... Not that that stopped us.  I believe the phrase is "strong like bull"... :)


We spent the rest of the week wandering about on this little island.  From Wittdün to Norddorf to Süddorf back to Norddorf... and so on.  

it's kinda like the middle of nowhere...but better!

The kids were absolute troopers - our first day we hikked 16 km!!  There was some serious complaining, but everyone made it home for dinner.  I should also tell you, that Amrum is half beach.  Gorgeous white sand beach.   With dunes.  It's quite incredible.  And we had a heck of a time collecting seashells on the beach.

braving the arctic winds to squish our toes in the sand

There's an artist who lives on Amrum and spends some of his time collecting driftwood and garbage on the beach.  And you know what they say: one man's garbage is another man's treasure.  This rather ingenious artist takes what he finds and makes ships.  Ships that are playgrounds.  When my inner child found this out, there was no denying her...

coolest ship ever.

And can you blame her?  The best part?  The disco balls!  After a short break to play, we wandered back through the surf to our hostel for lunch

like I said: best class trip ever.

There is a difference between the North Sea and the East Sea in Germany - namely, the tides are ridiculously huge in the North Sea.  So, when the tide goes out, you're left with these ridiculously muddy, squishy-squelchy, wet mudflats.  And they offer tours through them.  

learning all about the smallest, fiercest, fastest snail in the world

I had a really great time in the mudflats, although, if you weren't careful, you might end up stuck!

see?!

And while we did have a few people fall over, no one got stuck.  As reward, we stopped to pet some sheep on the way home.

Wednesday wasn't a great day weather-wise - it was cold and rainy the whole day.  So we went to the swimming pool and played in the waves.  They were super nice and turned the waves on every 15 minutes for us, instead of every 30 minutes.  I had so much fun playing in the water, but I was absolutely pooched at the end of it.  Luckily we went back for a nice relaxing game evening - where I introduced some of the kids to the wonderful world of Go Fish.  Oh yeah.

On Thursday we headed back up to Norddorf to do a little souvenir shopping.  And something amazing happened.  

No, it wasn't singing old sea shanties with my new sailor friend...

It was even better.  It was cloudy and cold that morning - the wind felt like icicles stabbing you.  So, we weren't quite sure what to do when it came to lunch (we'd packed a lunch, but there was no way we could sit outside to eat).  We ended up stopping in at the Tourist Information Centre to ask if we could eat in the reading room.  Where library silence was enforced.  We were allowed to go in and eat, if we were absolutely silent, so the readers wouldn't be disturbed.  I thought to myself: "26 ten year olds... there is no way they can be that quiet."  But they proved me wrong.  30 minutes without a whisper.  I was flabbergasted. And incredibly proud.

And the day only got better.  The sun came out in time to set over our campfire.  Where we sang super fun English songs and ate Stockbrot (I'm not exactly sure what the translation is, but it's honey-sweetened bread you roast over a campfire - like this)

mmm roasty bread...

The next day, we packed up and hiked on over to the harbour to catch our ferry home.  And it was beautiful.

told ya :)

I also ran across this sticker on one of the garbage cans:

I am an awesome deer

I had no words... just laughter.

And that is how my week at the seaside ended.  Well almost.  I also really liked the part where our bus driver told us that we had to switch busses in the middle of this little town halfway home.  We got off the bus in a McDonald's parking lot, grabbed our luggage... and tried to find the next bus.  For a little bit I actually thought the first bus drive was just going to leave us standing in the parking lot.

But he didn't.  Wasn't that nice of him?

And so I made it home, safe and sound and mostly sane.

The voices in my head are sending love your way,

Sandy

:)