Blogging at 21:30 on Thursday 22nd August from intended overnighting spot N 53.33807°, E 06.27108° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:53.33807%2C06.27108
Our morning consisted of a steady bumble up through northwest Germany right up to the Dutch border and to the Watenmeer National Park. The park is all about maritime / intertidal / saltmarsh habitat and proved a splendid area for a bit of lunchtime birding. Thousands of avocets and a couple of marsh harriers were the enduring sightings.
Before crossing the border into the Netherlands we filled (for what was hopefully the last time) with diesel at €1.47/l: probably wise as it didn't escape our attention that the very last fuel station in Germany we saw was thronged with Dutch people exercising their intractable rights as EU citizens by queuing off the forecourt and clogging German roads.
Once into the Netherlands we had a few kilometres of motorway to cover and were more than a little amused when - at one point - the whole motorway was flagged to a full halt whilst a giant bridge was lifted to allow a couple of leisure boats to potter sedately along the waterway beneath (pic). We could only imagine the angry emails that might ensue had this been a motorway in England.
Once we'd formulated our angry email to Den Haag, we quit the trunk roads and intentionally sought out some tiny unclassified roads to bumble along in order to get a better sense of the truly rural Netherlands. This was no bad thing as we passed through some very quaint communities (some with very narrow pavé streets) and witnessed some very archetypal Dutch windmill and waterways scenes. The civic pride difference from Germany was palpable. We maintain things seem very good here
The evening saw us back in the Lauwesmeer area as it's just too good a birding place to miss. As always, we've been rewarded with full skies and fields. There are lots of barnacle geese about and it's not impossible some of these were walking the streets of Longyearbyen exactly when we were. The list of Lauwesmeer species spotted today is long and includes another white-morph buzzard, plus a possible wood sandpiper.
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