Day 19 - Hamburg to Hooksiel

Today we wanted to take a closer look at the North Sea. The original plan was to take a mudflat hike there. That means walking through muddy clay while the tide is low. Having been to the North Sea before, I can say it's fun. But as I can already tell you, we didn't even get dirty. Our beloved Peugeot had been indicating for quite some time now (since we arrived in Stockholm) that it needed a service. With the motto "everything passes with time", we more or less ignored the blinking symbol that reminded us of the service every time we started the car. After surpassing the 4,000th kilometer on the Peugeot's odometer just before Hamburg, the car began to inform us that it was time for a service. With every further hundred kilometers we drove, we were reminded that the service was now a hundred kilometers overdue. We probably would have continued to ignore the service until the end if it weren't for UREA. The message "Fuel Tank Additive Error; Starting impossible after 2,400 kilometers" and the blinking UREA sign were a bit harder to ignore. Since we had no idea what the second message meant, we found out on Google that the diesel engine needed AdBlue, an additive for the fuel tank. But where could we get AdBlue? And where does it go? After a short call with the car rental company ("I can't help you there because I don't know what's wrong with the car.") and a much longer wait in their queue, we knew just as little as before. Thanks to a motherly advice from home (yes, even though the ego likes to be independent, it also likes to listen to advice from home), we then searched for the nearest Peugeot garage in Hamburg, where we would surely be helped. And that's exactly what happened. Almost immediately, an expert came and explained the UREA situation to us. We already knew everything thanks to Google. Then, a staff member came with two containers of the additive and refilled our car (by the way, in a tank in the trunk, which also answers the above question). He also told us to continue ignoring the service.

We could only live with the blinking service reminder and continued on to the North Sea. Our first destination was Wilhelmshaven. Since we lost some time (half a day) at the garage, we drove through this city and took the side roads along the coast. We did catch a glimpse of the North Sea, but otherwise, the protective barriers blocked the view of the sea. However, with large herds of sheep living on these barriers, there was still something to see. Shortly before six o'clock, we stopped at a hidden parking lot between the village of Hooksiel and the Wadden Sea National Park. We had done some shopping beforehand and wanted to enjoy it at the beach right away. Of course, we had a deserted beach section in mind. So we eagerly jumped up the barrier - and saw a huge caravan site. Caravan after caravan lined up here right by the sea. We ended up next to a campsite. Well, never mind. A little further away, we saw a dune with a bench on top, surrounded by tall reeds. We had to walk around the dune about three times because we couldn't see the path to the bench due to the reeds. Finally, when we arrived at the bench, we had another fun evening.