Instead of putting on the heating our bus driver seamed to think fresh air through the climate control would be a good idea. The tour went through various villages west of Stade. Actually a really nice sight-seeing trip, if it wasn't for my stiff frozen toes and legs. I was really glad leaving the bus in Freiburg after one hour even if a decent wind was blowing into my face. But moving one could at least get warmer again. I walked through the village heading north to find the start of the trail which would take me through the flatlands behind the dyke of the river Elbe, very close to it's mouthing into the North Sea.

Within minutes I was "Achtern Diek" (Lowland German dialekt for "Behind the dyke"). A wide landscape opened before my eyes. Green meadows, ocre coulered reads, a high blue sky with impressive clouds and only a few leaveless bushes and trees. Hundreds of barnacle geese were overwintering on the fields. The landscape was incredibly beautiful if you managed to ignore the atomic power station and the industrial plants on the other side of the river Elbe. It wasn't easy. You had to learn to turn your back on that ugliness. Though in the minute the whole lot of geese took flight I was able to forget everything. When they were feeding in the fields you could hear their constant chattering. But when those hundreds of birds were in the air, their wing beats took on an indescribable sound. I couldn't capture that in photos, but I hope you get an idea of the clouds of geese, of the constantly shifting light due to the strong southwest wind which carried white and dark clouds within minutes over the landscape. It was a glorious day offering fullfillment to all my senses.

In the end all that poured down on me was a five minutes shower of minor hail corns. A little bit later there was another short shower and that was it. But I could see how it rained or hailed down at the road between Freiburg and Balje while everything was dry around me. Crazy weather!

At this junction I left the geese behind me apart from the stray flock crossing the air. The cold wind was blowing onto my face, biting into the skin of my cheeks. Apart from that I could only hear a song bird here and there and the random car on the nearby country lane. The only soul I met was a lady with her dog, who would be wondering, if I got astray, as it is so rare to meet somebody on that track.

The view was so far I felt like spreading my arms, starting to run and taking flight. But the muddy ground was slippery. That's why I contained myself before falling headlong into the dirt and looking like a piglet, who had wallowed in the cesspool.