Isn't there supposed to be a Sea here?

One thing I've enjoyed about Germany is that long weekends that occassionaly pop up for Mariko... though she doesn't usually know about them until a week or so before hand. On once such occassion we decided that it would be fun to go visit the North Sea as we haven't had a chance to go yet.

We booked ourselves in the town of Wilhelmhaven, one of the larger ports on the North Sea.... and what we later found out probably the ugliest of them all (one of Mariko's lab mates is from that area). However we still enjoyed ourselves during the visit.

There were a few things that surprised us during our visit. The first was that the town was mostly empty whenever we were walking around. It almost felt like a town where everyone worked in the restaurants and stores and there was no one left to walk around. Most likely the case was that everyone else had gone elsewhere for the long vacation as well. What ever the reason it was still strange to see pedestrian streets and shopping areas void of the usual body mass.

Where are you hiding?!

And the second surprising thing was that the North Sea was missing! Well, maybe not missing as we did see it our second time to the shore... but not the first. Sounds strange doesn't? It was for us too. We crest the rise and instead of ocean stretching out before us was a large expanse of coastal flats with large puddles of water every now and then. definitely not what I was expecting.

The next day we decided to visit the aquarium that was along thshore, and when we arrived there the North Sea had miraclously returned! It was like magic. There were waves and everything! We even took a ferry tour out onto the Sea... it was my first time being on a boat in open water.

Oh look, the North Sea came back!

The trip to Wilhelmshaven ended and we headed back towards home. We made a small stop in Bremen to visit with some Niedersachens friends. It was our third trip to the city but it is still a beautiful place to visit... probably one of our favorite German cities. It was pleasant visiting with

I call dips on the top floor!

Gabe, Leighanna and Kirsten, they are always a fun crowd. At one point we even saw a things that we hadn't seen before.... and decided that all of us were going to buy a tall and extremely red building, and then live there because it looked just so awesome!