Week 9 - Germany
I wrote the last post Friday the 24th. Saturday, the next day, was a rough one. I told my family that traveling for a year would not mean a year of perfect days, anymore than we've ever had a year of perfect days at home. We set out for Greetsiel with the intention of taking a canal boat ride. That part went well, it was a nice day, the bus ride there was fine. The little boys weren't thrilled with the boat ride, it was mostly historical sites explained in German, but they gave us a printed translation to read so we could follow along. I think it was good for them to see how the canals connect and intersect just like roads, but it wasn't particularly exciting.
Afterwards, we realized there were no more buses that day. I wasn't at all concerned; it's a touristy town and I was sure there would be no problem getting a taxi. It was only 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon. We walked down to the harbor to look at the boats and see if there were taxis hanging around there. There weren't. I wasn't delighted at the prospect of calling one, but still not concerned. We went to an Edeka, which is a supermarket chain, so big C could look for a lightbulb for his room, which that didn't have. But we figured it was as good a place as any to call the taxi to. I was glad to speak with an English speaking dispatcher and asked for a taxi to come to the Edeka in Greetsiel and gave the street name. I'm sure I pronounced neither perfectly, but I was at least close. He said one would be there in five minutes, which sounded too quick since the taxi service was in Pewsum — another little town. So, I reiterated that we were at the Edeka in Greetsiel. Half an hour later, no taxi, so I called again. He said he had been there, but we weren't there. I'm pretty sure he'd been to the Edeka in Pewsum. I told him Greetsiel a couple more times, he said he'd be there, we waited another half hour, still no taxi. We called again and had Google translate speak into the phone and got hung up on. We tried all the other taxi companies we could find online — no answer. I went into the store and asked one of the ladies working at the bakery to call for us. She was sweet and did that. We waited another half hour, still no taxi. By now the store was closing so I went back to ask the bakery lady to call again. She did. Another half hour passed and hurray, a taxi! But not for us, he already had a fare and drove right by. The kids started to cry, I was pretty close. The bakery lady saw all this and volunteered to call again. Finally, about three hours after the initial phone call, our taxi arrived. He wasn't whoever I spoke with on the phone, he spoke much less English and listened much better. He was from the same company and said the dispatcher sent him all over the place trying to find us. Not sure what was so hard about it! Anyway, we were finally home and will never make assumptions about taxis again.
Sunday has even fewer busses running than Saturday and we now know taxis aren't always an option, so we did a walking trip to the Campen lighthouse, which is quite close. That was pretty fun. It's the tallest lighthouse in Germany and we climbed all 308 steps to the top.
There's a pretty neat view of the coast and countryside, including an adjacent nature preserve. Back on the ground there are some buoys and a rescue boat to look at and climb on.
We took a quick peek over the dike at the sea and walked home.
We took Monday off and I worked out return bus routes for the other places to see on our list so we won't be caught unprepared again.
Tuesday was a gorgeous day and we went to the moor museum at Moordorf. Its translated web page bills it as "the museum of poverty" which sounds kind of depressing, but it's definitely worth seeing. It's a collection of restored cottages set along a path in chronological order showing how the peat cutters of the region lived from the 1700's to the mid 20th century. I loved the fact that it was chronological so the kids could see the progression from one room thatched mud huts with open fires to brick houses with peat burning stoves. It was a really great experiential history lesson. Plus, there's sheep.
We took the bus back without incident. 🥳