Onbekommerd: Baltrum, Langeoog, Spiekeroog

We really enjoy the German Wadden. Around each corner is another surprise! And also the Wad is more close, more 'in your face'. With exception of Norderney, the harbours have been much less 'touristy' than for instance Terschelling or Vlieland.

We left Norderney and set course to Baltrum, which is the smallest of the 7 islands. The population is 500 souls, but in season this is augmented by up to 4000 tourists, the highest tourist / local ratio know in Germany (or so they say). Because of these numbers, and the small area of the island, there is no bicycle rental and visitors are asked to leave their bikes at home as everything is within very easy walking distance, which is true! Of course there are no cars (except for one ambulance and one fire engine) and everything is horse drawn. The yacht harbour is very small and the harbour master is also the air traffic controller of the local airfield (every island has an airfield), so you go to the control tower to pay the harbour dues!

We walked around the island and the following morning set course to Langeoog, only an hour and a half over the Wad in very nice weather, sunny with maybe 15 knots of Easterly wind. This island is a bit bigger, but no cars, most transport is by electric carts (plus some horses). The town is a few KM from the harbour, we walked there in the morning and in the afternoon we got the bikes out and cycled around the island. Again very nice.

This morning, Wednesday, the forecast was that it would be more windy and rainy later on, but in the morning it was quite still and although a bit overcast it was dry after some rain during the night. We decided to continue to Spiekeroog, which after all is less than one and a half hour away. A very nice and quiet trip through a ‘prikken route’ followed and by 10h30 we had tied up on our sixth (and second last) German Wadden island. As the weather was showing signs of changing we took a quick walk to the village which is just the other side of the dike and what a surprise! It is like it was taken directly from a fairy tale, with quaint little streets, a rose garden and small restaurants under the trees. Of course no cars, just electric carts. We had not taken the camera, so for pictures of Spiekeroog (also called ‘the Green Island’) you will have to wait until the following blog entry, except for a picture taken from the boat of our view: unimpeded onto the ‘Wad’ where a platbodem has run dry (they do that intentionally, to have even more peace and quit.

Suffice it to say that it has taken first place for us amongst all Wadden Islands (including Schiermonnikoog, sorry).