There are red squirrels, the kids with tufted ears, in the area around Ploen. They are much larger than the "boomers" back home, about as large as a regular gray squirrel. I saw one briefly about a year ago when I first visited, here is its picture,
then I saw one again when visiting last December, and earlier this week one strolled by on the porch in front of me, not 10 feet away. These are very rare to see back home so it is fun to see their cousins here.
Also, there are small birds here that seem like a cross between a chickadee and a house sparrow. They have a black stripe down their bellies. They act kind of like a chickadee but are larger. I wonder if they are related or are some kind of sparrow. At some point I will look them up.
Also, there is lots of waterfowl here. Sea gulls, mallard ducks, geese, and "coots" are very common. I've seen big groups of geese grazing in the fields around here. The coots, which we don't have back home, are more timid birds and very good at swimming under water. A few days ago I watched a mallard here swim under water to get away from gulls that were badgering it for food it had but couldn't swallow. It would duck under the water and apparently go under part of a dock to prevent the gulls from seeing it and resurface further down. It kept doing this to get away from the gulls hovering above it and dive bombing it. Also, I've seen grebes a few times and they can travel a long distance under the water as well.
There is a fisherman in town that keeps fish in a large tank behind his restaurant and I look in there from time to time while walking by. Earlier today the sky reflection wasn't bad and I saw lots of very large fish. Some looked like giant gray carp and I definitely saw a couple sturgeon several feet long.
One morning this week before work I biked halfway to Preetz, a town nearer Kiel, without stopping, another small accomplishment for me. It's was a little over 3 miles one way, 6 miles round trip. I added it to the biking map below in pink.
Saturday G and I drove to Kiel via a scenic route. First we went north to Luetjenburg which was a nice town but not accessible by train.
The we turned west to parallel the coast and passed what appeared to be a medieval village, so we veered back and checked it out. It was deserted so we walked around and looked at the buildings.
Then we hooked north to see the Baltic coast at Schoenbergstrand. There was a statue on the walkway that I liked of a person holding an umbrella in a strong wind.
The sand on the beach is very white (no I didn't spot any amber, but I couldn't help looking). There were rock walls jutting out into the ocean at intervals, perhaps to stop erosion.
While walking I spotted a group of mallards swimming in the Baltic, another first for me. I've never seen ducks in the ocean that I can remember. I walked out on a dock before heading back and only later after looking at the map realized that this is the point farthest north that I have ever been on the ground, N54°24'57" (some transatlantic flights have hooked further north, but that doesn't really count). I have been to Canada but they have all been points south of this. Europe is deceptively further north than one expects compared to America.
Then we headed to Kiel and IKEA where I bought some mattresses, blankets, pillows and some other odds and ends to get ready for my family moving in to our new apartment--only about three weeks from now.
Here is a map of our route Saturday in blue.
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