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To Helgoland
The "Halunder Jet" on which travelling is very comfortable.The weeks after the triathlon were really busy. I returned on a Sunday night, and the Wednesday after that, I left for a congress in Tilburg in the Netherlands, not far from Eindhoven. I arrived there in the evening, which gave me time for a little walk through town. Tilburg is a pretty new city, built in the 20th century. There is nothing specific to see, but there are a lot of nice roads with cafés, bars, restaurants, and shops. The university has quite a good reputation.
The congress that started the next day was one specifically on methods. The researchers there presented a lot of very specific things, and I must confess that sometimes I did not even understand what they were talking about, nor did I get what the practical implications of the research results were. Sometimes I had the feeling that the method was used for the method’s sake. But people were extremely friendly, and it was nice to meet some of the scholars there.
I presented my topic (a specific test format, but I won’t go into detail here 😉) in the morning and then had to leave the congress in the evening and drive
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Red cliffs. the 500km back to Hamburg, where my mother was already waiting for me. She had arrived in Hamburg by plane that evening and caught a taxi to my apartment.
My birthday and Christmas present for her had been a trip to the island of Helgoland. So on Saturday morning, we caught a boat in Hamburg that took us down the river Elbe and then past Cuxhaven into the open sea. After an almost four hour trip, we arrived in Helgoland. I was surprised to see how small the island is. If you walk from the north to the south, it takes about half an hour, and from east to west, it is not even 15 minutes. There are some amazing red cliffs on which there are thousands of birds. A pretty noisy place to be! The colours are great, there is the blue sea, the white beach, the red cliffs, and the green grass on top. And there is one rock that comes out of the sea to the north of the island, about 15 metres tall. The island has an upper and a lower part, which are connected by a lift and stairs. On both parts, there are
houses. Most of them are hotels, restaurants, cafés, or shops. It is possible to do duty free shopping on Helgoland.
Next to the main island, there is a smaller one, the “Düne” (“dune”), which can be reached by small boats. There are wide beaches and many, many robs. It is very popular especially for families with small children.
Apart from the beautiful cliffs, there is not much I liked about Helgoland. The village is extremely touristy. However, the staff working there is not very service oriented, which shows, for example, in the fact that you have to wait for ages before being served in most restaurants, or in the opening hours of the tourist information. My mother and I wanted to have a look at the bunker on the island. There are guided tours at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tickets are only available at the tourist office. However, this tourist office does not open until 11 a.m. Therefore, on Sunday morning, we missed the guided tour because we could not buy tickets. Then, when we came to the tourist office later in the day, the lady there told us that they had scheduled a special tour at
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The "Lange Anna" ("Tall Anna"). 11 a.m. But there had been no information, neither on the door of the tourist office nor on the internet. How annoying! Apart from that, everything looks pretty old and shabby.
Helgoland had been a strategically important spot during the First and Second World War. The German Emperor Wilhelm II., and later Adolf Hitler, had intended to build a military harbour on the island. Thus, the bunker was built, and the island was made bigger. After the Second World War, the Allies tried to blow the island up, but it resisted. The population that had been evacuated had to truly fight in order to be allowed to go back to the island.
There are still some bomb craters on the island, and my mother and I had the feeling that there was some pretty bad energy on the island. We did not like it at all. The only thing that was nice were in our opinion the cliffs, an Italian restaurant with a very charming owner in which we had dinner on Saturday night, and the museum. It was great to find lots of information on the children’s book author James Krüss, who was born on Helgoland. There
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Birds that seem to be in love. were a couple of books that I just loved when I was a little girl and that I still remembered. The guided tour on the electric train that we did was not too bad either. Not recommendable is the aquarium.
Altogether, we were glad when we boarded the boat back to Hamburg on Sunday night. The ride back was pleasant.
My mother stayed with me until Tuesday night, and I left for the next congress on Wednesday, in Maastricht, the Netherlands, this time. I did not present anything there, but rather went there to do some networking and learn what others are currently doing research on. I met Jan and Jonas. With both of them, I had worked at RWTH Aachen University. Jan is now a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Hannover, Jonas at Maastricht University. I used to live in Aachen for three years, and as Maastricht is only 30 km from there, I used to go there quite often. The city is very nice, it has old churches and a really old bridge that dates from the 13th century. And it is the oldest city in the Netherlands. During the congress, the organisers
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The Helgoland flag has these colours: red like the rock, white like the sand, and green like the grass. offered a guided tour through the city, and because I had not done one before, I participated. It was nice to do some walking outside before returning to the congress.
On Friday evening, I left for Bonn to spend the weekend with my friends Katrin and Tom. On Saturday, we went paddling with my former colleagues Simone, Martin, and Anke, and their partners. It was very nice to see them. We paddled 22 km down the river Lahn, which is very scenic in this area. We had lots and lots of food with us, so we had a break every now and then to have something to eat and drink. At the end of the day, we had dinner in a Greek restaurant in Limburg, then went back home.
On Sunday, I hit the road again to meet up with Mizzi and her dad. He had come to visit her in Hamburg, and we took the chance to have dinner together. Things calmed down a little bit after that, which gave me the chance to ride my racing cycle and do some bigger tours by myself and also in a group (usually between 50 and 90 km). I
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View over the river into the oldest part of town. also continued swimming and running, just not as intensely as before the triathlon. To get more experience in competitions, I did a 5 km women’s run on the 21st of June. I was not happy with my result, but it was an experience.
By the end of June, congress and island hopping continued. Last weekend, I was on the island of Sylt with my friend Mizzi. My mother and her cousin were there for two weeks, staying in an apartment, and they had invited Mizzi and me for the weekend. So we caught the train from Hamburg on Saturday morning and arrived on Sylt shortly after noon – just in time for some lunch. In the afternoon, we did a roundtrip on the island by bus. The island has this interesting shape, it is very long and narrow and runs from north to south, with a spur heading eastwards somewhere in the middle of the island. The island is linked to the very northern part of Germany through this spur, from which a bridge runs to the village of Niebüll. The bridge is only accessible by train, so even if you want to access the island by car, you
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Very old church. have to use a special car transportation train.
Sylt is very popular, especially amongst the rich and famous. That’s why it is a really expensive place. Nowhere else in Germany the square metre of land is as expensive, not even in Hamburg, Munich, or Düsseldorf. Therefore, the local authorities pay a lot of attention not to spoil the beauty of the island. In many areas, houses have to be built in the traditional style, and in many areas, it is not allowed to build houses at all.
The bus tour was really interesting, and after it, we finished the day with a nice walk along the beach and a lovely dinner. The next morning, we had the greatest breakfast buffet I’ve seen in my whole life. They had everything there you can imagine. It was huge, so we spent quite some time there just eating. After a nice walk along the “Watt” (the area that is flooded during high tide), we went to the Sansibar, probably the most famous bar on the island, and had a drink there. And then, it was almost time to go back home.
On Monday, I was glad to learn that my
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Tower that used to be part of the city wall. appointment with a customer near Stuttgart for Tuesday had been moved, which gave me time to prepare my presentations for the next congress. Still, on Wednesday, I went to Berlin with my colleague Stefan for a trade fair. It took place in a hotel that was like a complete village in the middle of the city, with restaurants, a shop, a fitness area, rooms for seminars and congresses, and with many events taking place at the same time.
I spent Thursday there, then went to see my professor on Friday morning. I got back home late in the afternoon and just had time to finish my congress presentations and to re-pack my suitcase. Early this morning, I left for Istanbul, where I only just arrived and where the next congress will take place from Monday afternoon on. But that’s another story.
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