Hannover to Norderney

Last week was definitely a whirlwind. We had one day back in Bonn from our 10 days of travel to do laundry and sleep and then it was on to Hannover. This was a really quaint and quiet city with a lot to offer. During our stay in Hannover we went to a research center that deals with spider silk as a reparative medium and does research on the axolotl. This adorably interesting creature is actually able to regenerate not only its tail but its limbs, skin, and even parts of its brain. Obviously this is very important with a research standpoint to figure out if their properties can be applied to humans to aid in healing. This would greatly reduce the healing time and pain of human injuries and could be applied to all kinds of fields, so this was a really interesting subject to talk about!! They're also extremely cute and look like they're always smiling so they wouldn't be bad to work with.

The other part of our tour in Hannover took us to a room entirely filled with spiders. They collect the spider silk and weave it into a roughly square shape, this then is used as a medium to encourage new cells to grow. They stressed the importance of guiding cells into certain patterns that are physiologically correct with the help of spider silk.  For example they set a silk square above a very thin layer of epithelial cells which then actually developed into a lower dermis layer and upper epidermis. They've also created tendons by spinning medium with spider silk to encourage the cells to grow into a strand than spreading everywhere. This was really interesting and revolutionary research that I'm glad to have experienced. It got a bit too personal when they took us to their spider room. They opened the door and there was a spiderweb literally covering the top half of the doorway, so to enter the room we had to pass under the web of a peach sized spider (which I did!!). Apparently they don't like people anyway but it was a very scary room filled with creatures from my worst nightmares. So I'm glad there are people out there to collect spider silk to do research with but I definitely will not be one of them. 

So then we went on to Norderney, Germany for some beach and relaxation. I can honestly say this is now my favorite beach in the world. The sand was so clean and white and the water was a little chilly but really refreshing, and the beach was just beautiful. There was hardly anyone there at any given time and it was just such a different place than I've ever been to, everything was so calm but so full of life at the same time. This is where we went to the Badhous spa which specializes in Thalasso therapy which is a salt water therapy that involves water from the North Sea and warm and cold water pools, saunas, baths and mud. There was one salt pool that was 30% salinity and you could just float and let the stress float away with you, which felt really cool. They had showers that were 6 meters up so the water came down like a waterfall which was really interesting. The thing about Germany is their doctors can prescribe spa time to cure ailments, and mind you this is paid time which doesn't come out of their THIRTY paid vacation days. America needs to adopt this system. So it's a place for relaxation and healing of all kinds of things and was a really interesting place to visit. Also no editing was done to this picture, life really is this beautiful. 

We also got our own bikes to navigate Norderney and rode them to the lighthouse and through sand dunes and really beautiful scenery. One thing we all thought was odd was the sheer number of rabbits, it really seemed like an infestation because they were literally everywhere you looked. Norderney also has a tax on the air you breathe if you come to visit. You literally have to pay taxes for breathing there because of their belief in the restorative properties of their 'special' North Sea air. 

I have to say Norderney was really something special and I hope to go back someday day. A sandy beach can be found in lots of places, but this wasn't like any other.