©stock.adobe.com/K I PhotographyWhen the sand mountain calls
Who said flatland here? There is no shortage of summit experiences and other highs in Schleswig-Holstein’s landscapes
There are even mountains in Schleswig-Holstein! But I have other reasons why, as a child of the Bavarian foothills of the Alps, I love traveling to Schleswig-Holstein. “This expanse, this sky, this light!” I shout every time I reach the Elbe. We don’t know so much freshness and clarity in the south. I always want to get out into nature straight away, to feel the north with all my senses. For example, when cycling over the dykes I bend low over the handlebars and feel the strong breeze. It must be similar to the feeling of being a sheep grazing on the dykes and letting the breeze brush their coats. I don’t know if the sheep feel the same way, but I am always overcome by an almost intoxicating sense of freedom and happiness. The walks by the sea are also wonderful. Baltic Sea or North Sea? I like them both. The weather doesn’t have to be “good” according to traditional criteria either. On the contrary, I find it particularly beautiful when the breakers roll in deafeningly, when clouds chase across the sky, raindrops fly horizontally, the wind tugs at my windbreaker and the seagulls screech against it. It is pure energy for me. After a long day out in Schleswig-Holstein nature I don’t collapse on the sofa; I want to head back out for more.
I prefer to walk barefoot on the sand. It’s nice to feel its coolness under your feet, the changing consistency from hard as a board to soft as powdered sugar. I am engrossed by its ability to pile up into dunes, undulating mountains of sand in ever-changing shapes, with peaks and valleys. Just mountains. Almost like in the Alps. The only difference is that the air here smells of salt, silver grass blows in the wind and stonecrop and marram grass grow. Dunes may look like perfect bathing paradises, but they are highly sensitive natural landscapes that need to be protected. I resist the temptation to traipse through the middle or even pick flowers whose roots hold the sand together in the first place. It would be unthinkable if the wind blew the dunes away in all directions. And I would be left without my Schleswig-Holstein mountains.