Germany

A Karen Brown Recommended Itinerary

Land Between the Seas

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Schleswig Holstein is Germany’s most northerly province. With Denmark at its tip, this broad finger of land divides the placid Baltic from the wild North Sea. Along the North Sea shore, dikes protect the sky-wide landscape from being claimed by the sea’s crashing waves. Safe behind dikes, sheep and cattle graze while crops grow in serene pastures. Offshore, dune-fringed islands brave the sea. Any visit to Schleswig Holstein would not be complete without a trip to one of the islands, so this itinerary takes you and your car on top of a train for a rocking ride across the Hindenburgdamm to Sylt. This island boasts an impressive landscape of sand dunes and exposed, steep cliffs sheltering quaint little thatched villages from bracing sea breezes. In sharp contrast, the Baltic coast is hilly, with long, graceful fjords extending far inland from the gently lapping ocean. Here kilometer after kilometer of white-sand beaches provide a holiday haven for northern Europeans who brave the chilly waters and relax in gaily colored, canopied beach chairs while their children decorate sand castles with sea shells. Between these two seas lies Holsteinische Schweiz (Swiss District), a confusing name as there are no mountain peaks, just a lovely area of wooded, rolling hills sprinkled with sparkling lakes.