Oct 23 -- Drive Halfway to Amsterdam

These are the windblown trees we saw before, but this photo
illustrates the wind effect better.

Today we left Denmark and drove about halfway to Amsterdam, stopping outside Bremen, Germany in an out-of-the-way hotel called "Peaceful Forest". We have a small balcony and a woods outside our window. Quite the contrast to being in the middle of the old city last night. Before we left Ribe, we stopped at the bakery and spend our last $10 in Danish currency on two luscious raspberry danish and a small bag of coconut macaroons. With as little walking as we did today, this will not be good for our waistlines, but definitely yummy.

At my daughter's urging, we settled on a more German name for our guidance system, and are trying out "Liesel" instead of Alice, even tho she doesn't speak with a German accent. We'll see how it goes -- I keep thinking of her as Alice, so the new name may not stick.

Either the Danish or Schleswig-Holstein countryside -- FLAT!

The drive was uneventful except when there was a major speed reduction on the highway and single file, everyone drove past a large police presence at about 25 mph. The car behind us got stopped, but we apparently looked pretty innocent. We took photos of the scenery -- pretty much what we have posted before. Lots of flat farmland. I wanted a photo of the Schleswig-Holstein sign, but was too slow. I did get to read it carefully though: it said "Land of Horizons".

Interesting building on the way to the hotel

After checking into the hotel, we drove to the nearby town to see if there were dining choices besides at the hotel, but zip there, so we went back to the bigger village we had skirted on the way in. Most of the dining choices there are lunch places or cafes with coffee and bakery. We did spy the top of an old-style windmill however, and searched it out. It looks like it is the bottom of a feed store today, and there was an old grinding stone leaning against the building. Probably in the old days, it was a wind-driven grist mill.

Store in Harpstedt called Arizona, selling southwest US goodies

The old windmill in Harpstedt

One of several lovely stained glass displays in a Harpstedt church

Dinner was at the hotel, where not too many guests speak English. Our waitress knew about as much English as I know German. With a dictionary and a phrase book, Jim and I managed to select dishes we both enjoyed and it only took about 30 minutes to figure it out! If we lived here, we might become competent in a year or two.