# Tag 1 Ostfriesland for Beginners

Hello, hello .... here we go.

On a beautiful weather, we load the last items into the motorhome, after we had already loaded all sorts of things over the weekend. The bikes in the garage, the winter jackets .... left at home, the shirts and shorts in the closets, the fridge filled with the remaining groceries from home.

It can start.

A small appointment still needs to be done, unfortunately it's not until noon at 1:00 pm, so we will only start our freedom for the next 5 weeks in the early afternoon.

The route should now start right on the North Sea coast and then continue to Holland, Belgium and then France.

Behind the Emstunnel near Leer we leave the highway along the Ems dike towards Dollart. We have never been here. And because the sun is shining and the view is great, East Frisia lives up to its name - in the morning, you can already see who will visit in the evening - flat land and green meadows as far as the eye can see. You already feel like you're across the border with the people with the many caravans.

Our destination is the motorhome park in Ditzum on the Ems

which is designed for 54 motorhomes and has received good reviews. In fact, you can see the motorhomes well in advance (see above). And then we are quite surprised how full the place is on a Monday outside of any holiday season. In the afternoon at 4:00 pm, there is hardly a space available anymore. There are probably already 40 - 50 motorhomes on it. We manage to get a space and first enjoy the sun with a walk on the dike.

The port of Ditzum is close and so is the village, which presents itself as a friendly, tidy gem with red brick houses and a huge mill:

In the harbor, four old East Frisians sit on a bench, smoking their tobacco pipes and 'schnacken' (chatting). I don't understand a word. It's not Holland here yet. But in this corner, they speak Platt, each one does.

In the harbor, there is a fish shop with an adjacent fish snack bar. That's something, so the decision for dinner is made - if there wasn't a catch:

Monday is closing day.

Well then. There are still some places in front of the harbor that invite you to eat. But we want to stay in the motorhome and first enter the only supermarket in town to maybe get fish there. Disappointment - no fresh counter and no fish either. Improvisation is called for and a package of 8 sausages ends up in the bag.

Back at the place, we first orient ourselves. The Ems barrier is in sight. It was built from 1998 - 2002 to enable the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg to transfer its ships with a length of over 300 m. So far, there have been 43 ship transfers, for which the Ems had to be dammed up 42 times.

Despite careful search, we unfortunately could not see any ships today.

Tomorrow we will cross the border to Holland with the goal of Alkmaar.