Wanderung 27

Detlef and Susanne had bought a vacation condo on the Baltic Sea in a little town called Scharbeutz, which is only an hour’s drive from Hamburg. They are renovating it and want it available for their own use and as a rental. I was curious about the area and the place and has asked Detlef whether we could maybe see it. Since he also wanted to check how the renovation was going and Heinke and Gustl were curious too, we decide to make it an afternoon excursion.

In the morning, Heinke and I bicycled to the local farmer’s market. Heinke needed apples and we wanted to find a nice evergreen arrangement to put on my parents grave. Even in November the market was still quite extensive, with several green grocers, flower stores, and even meat and egg places as well as some places with non-food items like pretty candle holders for the Christmas season.

After we stowed everything we needed into the carriers on the bike we started back. At one light I had a hard time getting going, the bike had a back-pedal brake and I had the pedal at just the wrong place to get started. After a little bit I managed to get going, but thought that I preferred my hand brakes.

We drove over to Detlef and Susanne’s place, a nice end unit in a town house complex. Susanne just had come back by car from picking up her bike and Detlef was pedaling it back. She had to work today so couldn’t come with us, but Detlef soon came and we were off.

The condo complex was truly right across the street from the Baltic shoreline, but their condo had a balcony that looked out the back side over a meadow, a very peaceful view. The place was really in the middle of renovation. It had been built in the 70’s so there was only one electric outlet in each room, so the first thing Detlef had done was laying new electrical lines and putting in a lot more outlets. He also had them move one wall to give more light to the living room. Finally, he had taken out all the carpeting to put in laminated flooring, because it was easier to clean, especially for a rental unit. It all looked “in progress” but you could imagine how nice it would be. Bob and I are considering seriously to rent it for a week or two maybe next year or the following year.

After the inspection we walked over to the ocean and walked first along the water and later on a very nice walkway along the beach about a mile into town. There Detlef led us to a restaurant he knew. It was a fish restaurant, where you order your food and pick it up. Unfortunately, all the menu items contained fish except for a Thai noodle dish. So that one was for me. Bob had authentic German Labskaus, a seafaring dish of corned beef hash with Herring and Matjes (two fish varieties). He wanted to see how it differed from mine. As in every typical German restaurant, you find your own table, and we did find one, where the couple was almost done. It had been a cold walk along the ocean, so first Detlef got us all a Gluehwein, a hot spiced red wine. This really warmed our hands and innards. The food itself was very good. The Thai noodles were nicely spiced (just right for me, Lois would not have liked it); Bob enjoyed his Labskaus that even had a fried egg on top and a pickle and beet on the side.

After a cappuccino to top it all off, we walked back to the condo, where we had left the car. It was getting dark—about 4:00PM and so we just jumped into the car and headed home for a quiet evening at home.