Beautiful - From the Jade Bay to Ammerland
The wooden mini-camper in which Anne Wilmes is travelling in the north-west of Lower Saxony is called the Knutschkugel. She starts in Dangast on the Jadebusen, where the spa park and campsite are right by the sea. Then it's 30 kilometres south to Ammerland, which is famous for its rhododendron breeding - and for the large number of tree nurseries. In the evenings, Anne Willmes always finds a spot for her camping trailer. She discovers a farm with a strawberry field to pick your own + an animal-crazy amusement park. On the way, she buys loose sweets in a historic corner shop, potatoes from the vending machine and Ammerland smoked eel. She cycles around the Zwischenahner Meer + introduces the open-air museum on the shore of the inland lake, finds a medicinal herb labyrinth in the forest and learns how the Duz Square in Westerstede got its name. She conquers the Aper Tief nature reserve, the only freshwater mudflat in the northwest, in a dragon boat.
Camping with the hugging ball: Parking with a trailer is not so easy. But with her hugging ball, Anne Willmes finds a place in the front row at the campsite on the bathing beach in Dangast, and in Nordloh near Alpen they serve Ammerland smoked eel with a view of the lake. She gets the most delicious cakes at the "Melkhaus" (milking house) on the small mobile home site "Drei Eichen" near Jade.
Rhododendron hedges and shaped trees: Rhododendron hedges in bright shades of red, pink and orange characterise the landscape in Ammerland. The shrub was first planted around 1800 in the landscape park of Rastede Castle. More than 1,000 different species grow in Germany's largest rhododendron forest. In a nursery inspired by the Japanese art of horticulture, Anne Willmes can try her hand at shaping a tree with scissors.
Adventures on the water: There is a Caribbean atmosphere at Nethener See - and Anne Willmes shows her ambition at water skiing. It is stormy at the Zwischenahner Meer: ideal weather for 14-year-old world-class sailor Clara Bonhagen, with whom Anne Willmes has an appointment in the middle of the lake. She feels reminded of the sweaty work of Roman galley convicts as she paddles a dragon boat through the channels in the Aper Tief nature reserve.
Broadcasting on 13th of August 2023 at 08.15pm + on 17th of August 2023 at 02.00pm on NDR/ARD
Music: POPVIRUS Library