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The leaning tower of … Suurhusen?

If "leaningest" isn't a word, it has to be added to the dictionary right this moment.

An hour’s walk north of Emden stands, or better leans, a tower. According to the Guiness Book of Records (and my sense of impending doom tingling as I stood beneath it), it is the leaningest tower in the world.

No, this is not a fisheye lens. This is the bend in the roof and sagging of tower and ground beneath is is real.

I can assure you, dear reader, that this isn’t lens distortion. The roof is that bent upwards and the tower is that leany.

The path from Emden towards the town of Suurhusen leads through a vast bogland and moorland that is crisscrossed by streams and dotted with small lakes full of fowl and aquatic wildlife.

I walked slowly, enjoying the warm sun on my face and the calm of the bog, stopped for an admiring minute to watch a few ducks chase each other around one of the lakes, and tried (in vain) to lure a squirrel from its branch with some trail mix.

It started to rain just as I got back into my hotel. Tonight will be an early one, tomorrow I’ll do the tourist thing and ride a boat around the waterways, seek out some more Geocaches and Adventure Labs, and prepare for my trip onward to Cuxhaven, another northern town along the German coastline.

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