Goodness me…!
I had been so looking forward to our vacation trip to the Baltic Sea but it turned out an utter disappointment. 🙁
I love traveling by train and our froggy daughter, Nici, was so excited about joining us on that trip.
But the first downer already happened on our final train when some small-minded train attendant thought he could tell my husband off for having a doll in a wheelchair on the train.
That idiot even threatened to “report” us. He should consider himself lucky that Harry stayed calm and only replied, “yeah, you do that!”
The apartment turned out nice and well equipped and offered a terrific ocean view from the balcony.
Later on the day of our arrival, Harry took a stroll on his own in order to find the shortest barrier-free path down to the beach and check out potential places for some nice photo shootings.
He came back with a frowned face. Although he had no problem finding a way which would have accommodated my wheelchair, he did have problems finding spots he would consider nice.
Also, Harry said that the Schleswig-Holstein Baltic Sea coast flair was somewhat… well, in German, we would probably say “überkandidelt”. Very posh, very over the top, the complete environment, buildings and people alike – simply not at all his cup of tea.
He kind of knew it would be like that in nearby Scharbeutz and Timmendorfer Strand. But considering the owner of the apartment is a very good friend of his and with an amusement park for very regular people nearby, he never thought it would be like that in Sierksdorf, too.
Harry is a North Sea guy, mind you, and I love it there, too. He says the only thing the coastal regions of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea have in common is that their waters are wet.
Originally, for the second day, Harry had planned to take a bus to nearby Neustadt/Holstein to do some shopping for our 6-day stay but he just couldn’t imagine us to stay there that long. So, we ordered delivery food and beverages and spent the day watching TV and play “Mensch ärgere dich nicht” on my laptop.
Harry was so unhappy with the entire situation that he genuinely started to feel sick. Consequently, we decided to pack our bags in order to travel back home the very next day.
The apartment itself was actually nice as I said before, however, the corridor leading to the bedroom was very narrow so that Harry had troubles carrying me in and out. Also, the mattresses were not really good and gave us a hard time cuddling.
So, we decided not to return to the bedroom for our second and final night. Instead, Harry prepared me for our next-day, early-hour departure and I spent the night sitting in my wheelie and looking out the window with Nici sleeping in my lap. Harry spent the night on the couch so, at least, we would be in the same room.
We left the apartment well before 6 a.m. Later that morning, we got to spend a little time at Hamburg Central Station but we were glad when we arrived back home in the early afternoon.
Harry recovered really quickly so, obviously, his feeling unwell had a lot to do with the fact that he just didn’t like that place. He said he had experienced similar sickness many years earlier.
Nici was understandably disappointed. It had been a few years that she last got to travel.
However, our trip back to the East Frisian North Sea coast is looming large and Nici will be joining us, of course. There, we will have a very good time. We know that place, we love that place, it will be great again.
I am so sorry your ‘ferien’ wasn’t a succes. Much of what you wrote sounded familiar, for here we had experiences like that as well in the past. It sometimes happens that at atmosphere of a place just doesn’t feel right. Usually hard to describe but it means that it is just not the same wavelength you and Harry functioning on. That happens, it works for other people but not or you. What you were describing what happened in the train, I thought only Dutch people had the habit of being that rude? Must be the northern region. I haven’t had that experience yet but am expecting it definitely now being up north for a while. So I am prepared. In the south we never had those experiences and encountered enough people who realized that I was ….. ehm … different. But they only were interested in a kind manner. Now I don’t want to start a philosophical plea but up north ( everything north of Paris is up north to me) they often seem less enlightened and a lack of good manners. It is a pity. But remember, that you are not alone in this and think of that motto:” Mensch, ärgere dich nicht ( oder versuch es am wenigstens )
Well, we have never experienced any rudeness or negativity of any kind on our previous two trips to East Frisia which, obviously, also qualifies as a northern region.
Of course, had Hubby not felt sick, we could have just stayed the six days regardless of anything. But he just doesn’t have his late mother’s “fully paid, fully eaten” attitude. And I’m quite glad he doesn’t, to be honest.
We’re all now looking forward to return to East Frisia for 7 days come Saturday next week. 🙂
Teehee, actually you are absolutely right about Frisia. Our Frisian friend would agree with you as well. But I must confess that Frisians are not the average northern people. At least that is our experience. For example, the Dutch province Friesland is separated from your East Frisia by the also Dutch province Groningen. We have heard from so many people that the average inhabitant from Groningen is SO MUCH different from the Frisians! Often we heard the predicate ‘not friendly people’. So perhaps in the case of the Frisians it is Ausnahmen erstättigen die Regeln’? ( is there a proper English translation for that saying?) My companions are by the way both from Amsterdam though they live most of the time in the south of friends and when not at the Belgium border in Zeeland ( Niederlande) right now. Are they northern? They should be but they don’t feel like that.