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Germany by Scooter

2473 Kilometers in 80 Days - Euromaxx Reporter Michael Wigge's Blog

From the smallest village to Brazil!

Hi everyone,

After a slow start, my scooter challenge has pretty much taken off.

Two old farm houses on a small villageI first reached a small village on a tiny island in the North Sea after walking with my scooter through the Wadden Sea. This small village with eight inhabitants is said to be Germany’s smallest village! I was intrigued to learn about the life on this tiny island also known as a “Hallig”.

Sabine Kolk who has been living there with her husband for eight years told me that she loves this secluded place so far from cities, because having a lack of choice can be rather relaxing. She tells me that she has little choice in the forms of entertainment or the people to hang out with. But she is happy with what she has and would feel stressed with the many choices on the mainland.

I also talked to a grandmother, an island dweller of 49 years now, who misses the nature and the quietness after being on the mainland for too long.

But would Germany’s tiniest village be suitable for me? I tested it out and did a scooter race around the village. Everything less than a minute of riding the scooter would seriously be too small for me! The result: 51.4 sec for one full circle around it!

It was time to go and to cross the federal state of Schleswig Holstein with my scooter. After three and a half days, 173 kilometers on the scooter and with lots of aching muscles, I have reached a town at the Baltic sea called BRASILIEN, which means Brazil!

Did I take a wrong turn and end up in a foreign country? I didn’t!

Brasilien is a part of the town of Schömberg. Next to Brasilien, there is even a part called “Kalifornien” (Geman for California) and a bit further you can find a part of town called “Sibirien” (Siberia). Rumors exist about the origin of these names, but nobody really knows the reason for sure.

So I tested the exotic  factors of Brasilien:

First I jumped into the sea with its water of six degrees Celsius: DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME! And than the inhabitants of Brasilien had to dance Samba on the beach and they did it well!

Someone living in Brasilien even bragged about the many sunny days in Brasilien, but I didn’t notice that at all, especially since I was freezing cold having been in the water just before.

But good news for all lovers of amusing town names: Germany has hundreds of these exotic sounding places, check it out!

Yours, Wigge

Date

April 18, 2013

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