Cuxhaven - and tides

We're entering the Cuxhaven City Marina, located behind a bridge - and it's a lock as well, I suppose the lock is in use only during floods.

At the other side there are some wharfs, here they are doing work at the top of the mast of a sailboat, using a lift.

This is part of the flood protection. There is a door in the opening that can be closed.

Labels on how high where the previous floods have been. I didn't take notice at all when taking the photo - but now I really wonder what those people in the background are doing. The river Elbe flows out here, but the risk of flooding comes not so much from the river as from the sea!

Those photos are taken right before the high water ... there are already pools of salty water on the road. According to the sand marks it seems like the high water the next morning was flooding the road completely.

This concept of "beach baskets" I've seen only in Germany, but there are a lot of them at the beaches. They feature a bench that can be folded out to a sunbed, plus some storage boxes underneath.

Flood protection

Later the same day me and my wife went back to go bathing a bit. Oups. The water is gone!

We walked quite far out and eventually we came to the shipping lane - but there it's too dangerous to go bathing, particularly due to the strong current.

Here is some sort of a waterfall, as the water that is left on the mudflat plain is running out into the shipping lane.

Here is some sort of a waterfall, as the water that is left on the mudflat plain is running out into the shipping lane.

Here we've gone back to land.

The mud was teeming with life, particularly just by the rocks defining the shipping channel. Small shrimps, oysters, other shells, crabs, other animals ... and humans going for a walk on the mud!

I's possible to walk all the way to the nearest island, 13 km away - Neuwerk. On high tide there are ferry lines going there, on low tide there are supposedly horse-drawn carriages doing the same service!

Here are some artwork left behind in the sand

It would have been nice to take photos exactly at the same spot at high- and low water, but anyway ... those photos are taken at the place where the water was on level with the road during high water. It seems like this sea bottom is a bit lower than at the other beach, so it'ss actually still some water here at low-water ... but not enough for swimming.

We returned home with oysters

Here is a photo from the harbour, at relatively high water. There are provisions to fish out garbage from the sea.

In Germany, every guest harbour is also efficiently a border passing point

We had to leave at high water to go with the current. Here is the view of where we've been walking, from the shipping lane.

Selected photos available in original quality on IPFS QmSxWfwR2stDeRX1b1eeVQRuBYLbNdwfQY8i1dy4LTU5KU. All photos taken available in original quality on IPFS QmR5dn1XLxqrigzmw2SWFfWjy6Qip9iUm8H5P7ABmEtL7U. License: CC BY-SA 4.0