Between Ole Liese and Weissenhaus Grand Village Resort, in the coastal town of Hohwacht, is the start of one of Europe’s great beach walks. We passed a popular stretch of sand speckled with colorful Strandkörbe (hooded basketlike chairs) and walked along low dunes covered with wild rose thickets. Bright-red rose hips had already started appearing, but numerous pink blossoms still remained. Soon the paved path turned into more of a nature trail, with dunes on one side and pastures or wetlands on the other. Wooden stairs climbed the dunes in places.

The path became a boardwalk along the top of a meadowy ridge, and I took in a view encompassing the deep-sapphire Baltic, a distant flashing lighthouse and gleaming-white swans gliding across a salt marsh pond.

Before returning to Hohwacht, we stopped for lunch at Restaurant Klabautermann, a cozy thatch-roofed eatery near the marina of Lippe, with tables overlooking the sea. The turbot, caught that morning in the harbor, was simple perfection: delicate and moist, with a crunchy, buttery breading. Our cheerful waitress asked if we planned on returning for lunch the next day. I told her that we did, hoping that my promise, though impossible to keep, might somehow come true.