My Daily Banana

My Daily Banana:

Photo of the Day:

A pretty little house in Niebüll

With a tree growing out of the chimney

What a lovely afternoon

Event of the Day:

08th June 793

Vikings plunder St Cuthbert's monestary on Lindisfarne

Lindesfarne is a small tidal island in the North-East off the coast of Northumberland; it is often referred to as the Holy Island

Lindesfarne for me is a progressive folk group thet I remember from the seventies. One great song they sing is Lady Elenor. I saw them play in Tondern, Denmark sometime in the eighties at the famous Tondern Folk and Jazz Festival (always on the last weekend of August, if anyone is thinking of going. I can highly recommend a visit, it's the biggest folk festival in Europe with an international billing. They have had Pentangle, Arlo Guthrie alone and with the family, RunRig, Lonnie Donegan when he lived and many, many more great acts.)

Tondern Folk Festival

Birthday of the Day:

08th June 1940

Nancy Sinatra

Jersey City

singer (Boots are Made for Walkin') and daughter of Frank Sinatra

Died on this Day:

08th June 632

Mohammed,

prophet of Islam (Koran), dies (according to tradition)

Bicycle ride of the Day:

My ride today took my once more through the Koogs.

A Koog is new-land, which has been won from the sea. Most of the countryside around Niebüll is new-land and below 0.0 metres (sea-level). We are protected by dykes, but if we would have a storm with waves over ten metres, a stip of land at least twenty kilometers wide would be flooded.

Around Niebüll the land is marshland and in Leck, where Lynda lives

(fifteen kilometers from Niebüll) it's geest land from zero to fourteen metres above sea level, that's where the flooding would stop.

That was a short excursion into our history and geography, now back to my cycle tour.

The Bottschlotter Au
look how peaceful the water flows

The other side of the road looking towards the Bottschlotter Sea
a small nature reserve lake

Wide open country, no natural woods, it's all gained ground where the North Sea used to flow.

Waygaarddeich, a small village five houses at the most.
Under the German name of the village you can read the village name in Friesian, the original language of this part of the country that has nearly died out. Earlier in time when the language was in use nearly every town and village had its own Friesian dialect.

A farm in Waygaarddeich,
terrific setting

I rode through the Koogs to Fahretoft a beautiful village about fifteen kilometers south-west of Niebüll. It has many old and well kept Friesian houses crowned with thatching.

Village limits shield

This is where the monster tractors unload their goods and there's a corn-scales in front, I always ride over it when I travel through Fahretoft

The scales only weigh insteps of ten kilograms, rounding upwards.
My bike and I weigh somewhere between 100 and 110 kilograms.

A thatched roof house in Fahretoff

Another dreamy thatched roof house in Fahretoft

It was then north-west to Dagebüll-Kirche. Dagebüll is a village split-up in two parts, Dagebüll-Kirche and Dagebüll-Hafen where the ferries transfer to the North Friesland islands. The two village halves are three kilometers apart. Dagebüll-Kirche is built around a very picturesque church which was built in 1731.

Village limit shield in Dagebüll-Kirche
I like the Friesian name
Doogebel-Schärk
Can you pronounce it?

The church was built in 1731, but without a belfry tower, that came in 1906

Next I turned north past Bibi onto my normal route. Where I met my friend the labrador, he was really happy to see me, he even got up to greet me. I gave him a cuddle and scratched his back and throat, he loves that and lent harder into it. Lovely dog, I'm glad I don't own one though, they have to be looked after, they pooh and pong and if you go on holiday you need a minder to look after it; no thanks!