Another version

This is Katherine's version of last Sunday, which is when we went from Nordhaven to Cuxhaven. It started alright with quite a nice church and then a ferry across to Bremerhaven.  We had to wait a bit but there was a bar and we had a beer. Then the fun started. We couldn't find the way out of Bremerhaven. the signposting abandoned us in the centre. After lots of asking people who did not speak English and we don't speak German, we finally got the right road. With a strong cold wind against us, and rain spitting at us from time to time, we battled our way onward. A lot of the time the cycle route was next to the road, with a dyke on one side, so we couldn't see the sea, and houses or flat fields on the other, it wasn't very exciting even if the wind hadn;t been against us. When the chance of changing direction came, by taking a different path to cut across the country side, we took it.  Sign posting in this part of Germany is somewhat unreliable and having said Cuxhaven it didn't mention it  again till we were nearly there.  Then it brought us in at the south end but there was no sign to say where we were. Eventually arriving at the town centre, there was one sign to the ferry  and then no more.  We went round in circles for at least an hour and finally gave up. The camp site marked in town proved not to exist and we had to cycle, still against the wind back up to the route we would have been on if we had not deviated from the North Sea Route.  By this point I was tired and very fed up.  I would have happily given up the whole project.

But the next day was different. It was raining but the campsite had a cafe, so we went for breakfast. A couple of German cyclists told us the ferry went on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We went to the tourist information centre to find out more. Cuxhaven is a seaside holiday resort and at this time of year is full of pensioners.  The Information Centre was full of rather bedraggled elderly people enquiring what to do on a cold wet day at a seaside resort. We found out where and when the boat went the next day and settled down to a 'day off'. It was much needed and by the time we had set off again on Tuesday I was prepared to accept the wind against us as a fact of life. In fact, though it has been against us some of the time, it has never been as bad as that Sunday.