Nordseekrabben

Right now we're in Cuxhaven, a town on the North Sea that is an extremely popular tourist destination in the summer and more or less dead in the winter. The reason for the deadness in the dead of winter became clear as soon as we got out of the car: the biting wind that snaps right through your coat and nineteen layers of sweaters as though you were naked. This place is beyond freezing.



My fiance brought me here under false pretenses, claiming that it was a mere three or four hour drive from his parents' house and just absolutely gorgeous. The hotel, he swore, was absolutely to die for at low off-season rates. The drive turned out to be seven hours, and we accidentally reserved the wrong hotel. However, the hotel we are actually staying in is also fairly nice, and the drive goes by fast when you aren't the one at the wheel. And we have a gorgeous view of the sea from our hotel room. And when you shut your eyes, you can pretend the loud rushing noise outside the window is the waves crashing, not the wind howling.



Luckily, the attempted ban on shopping has been lifted, and we've purchased a few charming things, including a stuffed walrus for my collection and a charming ceramic lighthouse for Torsten's grandmother. I also got a giant, two-foot tall book called "Das Grosse Bunte Buch Der Tiere," which means "The Giant Coloured Book of Animals." It's really cute and I have sworn to use it to learn lots of German names for animals and colours. (I was forced to make this promise, as my original justification for the purchase was that our future children would love it, and for some reason Torsten thought it was a tad early to be buying books for our kids.)



How is everything going with you? What have I missed?