Dave and Marie´s 37th Anniversary Day-Trip to Helgoland

OK, this was a pretty nifty little place to visit. Helgoland, belonging to the German State of Schleswig-Holstein, lies 40 miles into the North Sea Gulf Stream, north of Cuxhaven, which is 60 miles north of Bremen.
Ownership has bounced around from Denmark, England, Prussia, and after 1890, the German states took possession after trading the African lands in Zanzibar for this 600 acre sandstone island and its smaller atoll, used for a small airstrip.
The island has no vehicle traffic except for small cargo transport cartage to the shops throughout the island. Hey, you walk.
The north side of the island ascends to a height of 1800 feet overlooking the North Sea and during the World Wars, Germany used it to port its military fleet and U-Boat batteries along with its bunkers and gun placements to try and control North Sea traffic. It had heavy sea wall and harbor construction.
During the close of WWII, the British pounded the island with over 6,700 tons of bombs.
Today, it is tourist heaven. About 1500 permanent residents live here supporting the shops, restaurants, hotels and beach villas and even a youth hostel, for visitors that come here from April through October. Other visits to the island are sporadic due to choppy seas and winds up to 80 mph that pelt the surrounding area.
Our trip consisted of traveling from Cuxhaven on the high-speed catamaran HSC Halunder Jet (9,500 Hp, 4 jet 40 mph cruiser), shopping the walkways, walking the red-sandstone plateau to the north end of the island.
Large long hair sheep graze on the plateau grasses, residences plant their own vegetables in gardens on the edge of the cliffs and watched the 100s of seabirds that nest in the cliffs and many holes from the heavy bombing from 1945.
The British took control of the island until 1952, when they gave it back to Germany and it has since flourished as a summer stop for northern Germans. The well known pinnacle is referred to as Lange Anna (pronounced "longa aanna", or tall Ann) located on the north end at the former German Military base for U-Boats during WWII. This name was given to the rock formation, where a very tall woman named Ann, operated a little guest house for the troops after the war.