Days 10 and 11
After breakfast, we went to the Bunker museum. During WWII, Emden was a strategic target because there was a submarine manufacturing facility on the harbor there. Thus, Emden was bombed heavily and most of the buildings in the downtown date to after the war. The town built more than 30 concrete bunkers to protect the people during the air raids and these big grey structures now populate the city having been recommisioned for other uses, including this museum.

We then had a big family lunch with Kim’s grandfather, whose birthday was the following week. It was an interesting visit for me because although Kim and his brother speak English very well, his mother speaks just a little English and his father, grandfather and sister don’t speak English at all. But, it was fun to watch them conversing in German and guess what they were talking when I’d hear a familiar word like Schuetzenfest. The best was watching their facial expressions while Kim tried to explain the concept of a demolition derby. I don’t think they quite understood why we Americans would enjoy such a thing.

Kim and I took a long bike ride to the coast and rode along the dike in the evening. There was a nice paved bike path on the crest. As the dike is among the tallest structures in the area, the bike path there offers nice views of all the towns looking one way and views of the North Sea on the other. Despite the fact that I don’t remember the last time I rode a bike, I managed not to injure myself and actually enjoyed the trip. Just to finish my impression of rural Germany, we stopped at the dairy farm on our way home to get fresh milk (basically directly from the cow).

An example of a bunker with a new use

a German water tower

just a cool pic of a wind turbine
A pimped east German car