Bloggers in Bremen

Yes, yes, I know, I’ve been back in South Africa for more than a month now and I still have not shared some of my Germany trip with you!! I am really sorry but they say that good things are worth waiting for 😉

Wink, Eliana and I at the Nordsee beach.

So, without further ado… … on Sunday 30 August Conrad, Eliana and I hopped on a plane and headed for Germany – via Istanbul, Turkey. I am so glad that we were blessed with an excellent little traveller. Eliana slept almost the entire way and didn’t make a fuss at all.

I’m not going to give you a rundown of our entire stay because I want to focus on my meeting with Wink, from a creative being (the link will take you to her post about our meeting). On Tuesday, yes, the day after we arrived we got into the car and drove to Bremen, a drive of almost two hours, which was nothing compared to poor Wink, who had to take a train and a bus, all the way from the Netherlands to visit me!

The entrance to the train station, or part there of. I only took my 50mm lens with me and couldn’t get far enough from the entrance to get the whole thing into the frame. I think it’s really pretty.

A few weeks before we flew over I had mentioned on Facebook that we would be in Germany and Wink asked where I would be staying. When I said it was in the area around Hanover she got really excited and suggested meeting up. Since we were only going to be in Germany for 12 days I was a bit hesitant at first. As much as Eliana is a great traveller I din’t really want her to be stuck in a car every single day (we were going to be doing a lot of driving to visit friends and family). However, I thought that I may never get the opportunity to meet up with Wink again so I organised a meeting at a location pretty much in the middle, which just happened to be Bremen.

Well, Wink was supposed to arrive at the bus stop, outside of the Train station in Bremen at 11. We almost didn’t meet up because it turned out that the international busses actually stop at a different bus stop – TWO blocks away from the train station! She walked the two blocks and luckily spotted Conrad with Eliana, whom she recognised from Instagram.

We sat down, had a quick cup of coffee and then drove to the Nordsee, which has a really interesting beach. It’s a wadden sea, which means that at low tide the water retreats quite a few km out to sea and you can actually walk in the shallows (with gum boots of course).

The wadden sea at low tide.

The lovely green grasses along the beach and some beach huts in the distance.

Lovely colourful beach huts.

Eliana found a bucket, and since no one know who it belonged to she claimed it. (We did leave it behind, in case the owner came looking for it.)

Bahbah’s, according to Eliana.

The hubby. Love him.

Sneaky shot of Wink shooting.

After spending some time at the sea, and having lunch. We visited our old landlords in Nordenham, which is where I lived for about four years before we moved to South Africa.

Eliana and I in front of the house I used to live in.

Walking in the garden. It was all much bigger when I was little.

During the day Wink and I talked about blogging, a bit of crochet of course, and just had fun hanging out together. Wink is a lovely person and I wish we could meet up more often. It is so wonderful to get together with likeminded people and to share creative ideas.

Oh, and she also spoiled us with some awesome gifts!

Our ‘loot’ from Wink.

Wink (obviously) made all the crocheted goodies herself but what is even more special is that they are all first editions of patterns she has designed. Eliana was gifted the really cute unicorn and the nesting baskets. They are such a great toy, especially when you need something quite, like for church. I was given two lovely mandalas. Those of you who follow Wink will know that she is an expert in seamless crochet and I must say, I really battled to find the beginnings and endings to the rounds! Lastly, she added some traditional Dutch candies, a coffee flavoured toffee and the most yummy peppermints I’ve ever tasted. There’s also a really nice story as to why she chose the peppermints. She said something along the lines of, ‘I know you and Conrad ride bikes, and in the Netherlands we like to ride bikes too – but not as fast as you two. We like to take it easy and stop along the way to talk – and eat these peppermints.’ I thought that was so sweet and thoughtful!