About two weeks ago, we spontaneously decided to go on a short holiday. We searched online for an available holiday home while looking very anxiously at the weather forecast for the regions we considered. In the end, we chose a holiday rental in the small town of Brodersby, near the city of Schleswig in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany). Admittedly, the weather forecast wasn’t looking too promising but that was completely compensated by the fact that our rental had a wood burner and a sauna!
We just returned home a few days ago and I’d like to share my memories with you…
A Dog-Friendly Holiday
For us, there are two types of holidays: with the dog or without the dog. Dog holidays are very much different from spending time away without a four-legged friend. For a start, dogs are usually not allowed in cultural places and city sightseeing is no fun for dogs either. On top of that, the availability of nice rental properties that allow dogs are often very limited. So, when we want to go somewhere the first question is whether we want Bono to come with us or not.
This year we have been away twice without him, so I wanted a dog holiday this time. That said, our sweet Bono can also be a real pain in the a***! He has a strong preference for what he likes and what he doesn’t like, especially when it comes to indoor places like restaurants, cafés or even the holiday rental itself. We often end up with him looking at us like “I don’t like it here” and him refusing to come in with us. We haven’t figured out yet what bothers him then and makes him restless. Maybe it comes with age… We often call him grumpy old Bono :)!
Walking From Our Front Door
Anyway, this time grumpy old Bono was coming along on our holiday. And that means a lot of walking. The house was located near the Schlei (a fjord-like lake connected with the Baltic Sea) and the rolling landscape in this area is beautiful! We could start walking directly from our front door!
This was on our first day and just around the corner from our house. I like the small paths that take you straight through the fields. It always reminds me of the public footpaths that you find in England. And let’s admire the autumnal colours! It’s like the trees are on fire! When we left from home, the fall colours hadn’t started to appear that much, but here autumn already was in full swing, colourwise.
The afternoons were even warm enough to sit outside in this pretty ‘Strandkorb’, typical beach chairs that you find a lot in the coastal region of Germany.
Visiting Geltinger Birk
We also decided to visit Geltinger Birk right at the beginning of our stay (as long as the weather was supposed to be nice). Geltinger Birk is a nature reserve with lots of bird species, but also wild cows and horses.
There are several walking paths in the nature reserve and we started the long one. About a third of the way through we decided to go back. We simply started our walk too late and as soon as the sun was gone it was cold. The first part was beautiful though!
Walking in Vikinger Land
The weather remained nice and the promised rain didn’t come! I found another walking path just a short car drive away.
The path takes you along the local Vikinger Museum Haithabu. From the 9th to the 11th century, the early medieval town of Haithabu was one of the most important trading centres in northern Europe. The Danish king personally took control of the area, which was soon one of the most important maritime trading centres and one of the first cities in northern Europe.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t go in to visit the museum because Bono wasn’t allowed in, but you could see the rebuild Vikinger houses from a distance. The landscape, again, was very beautiful! The walking path takes you along a semicircular wall that was built to protect the town back in the middle ages. Nowadays, you walk on top of it.
Visiting An Old Fishermen’s Town
The city of Schleswig was where we went grocery shopping and was about fifteen minutes away by car. With the days getting short (quickly, after the clocks had been changed to standard time), we didn’t manage to visit the city itself until the last day of our trip. We walked through the former fishing village Holm which is now part of the city of Schleswig.
It’s a square with a little church and a cemetery in it. The houses are all built around the square and most of them are over 400 years old.
The first houses were built around the year 1000 and until 1933 this was an island off the coast of Schleswig. Around 1900 about 100 families lived in the settlement and lived from fishing.
We went for a short walk through the city of Schleswig, but returned to our car because it was getting cold and wet!
Let’s Make It Cosy Inside
We were so lucky with our cosy holiday house! It was not a punishment to stay inside and snuggle up with some knitting, hot chocolate and Christmas sweets (I took a small supply with me, of course).
I took a few unfinished knitting projects with me. One of them is a jumper that I started back in 2020… Needless to say that it is time to finish it! I’m almost there now, just have to finish the neckline.
My Opus Shawl is the other project that I brought along, though not intending to finish it! It grew only marginally during our holiday. This might become a very slow project, but it’s nice to work on it and the Walcot Opus yarn is so soft!
Do you see the cake in the photo? I baked that on our holiday :). It’s a very simple apple cake that requires only a few ingredients. I checked the kitchen for supplies when we got there and found all I needed to make it. We only had to buy the ingredients and we needed some of them anyway (eggs, butter, milk). It’s a very simple recipe from YouTube (turn the subtitles on for help).
At night, we would light the fire and watch a movie or simply listen to music… Or use the sauna! It was a very relaxing holiday. Exactly what we needed at the moment! A little calmness before the holiday season starts and family visits will be planned :)!
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