Hannover and Norderney

            This week was hands down the best week so far. Here’s what happened:

Monday we met bright and early to make our way to Hannover. When we arrived we stopped for a quick bite to eat and then headed to the Axolotl Research Center. One of the researchers there sat us down and gave us a lecture about the axolotl, what they were doing, and why the research was important. I learned that axolotls have a special property that allows them to regenerate pretty much any part of their body with no scarring. As they age it takes longer for the process to complete, but the fact that this is still possible is astonishing to me. After the lecture we headed into the room with all of the axolotls. There were multiple kinds and colors, including one that was pretty close to transparent. The best part about seeing them is that they can recognize visitors and perk up to receive treats. Plus, they always look like they have a little smile on their face, so it’s impossible to be in a bad mood when you’re looking at them. One axolotl had eggs in her tank that were completely transparent to where you could see the little embryos clearly forming within the egg. Needless to say, I learned a lot and loved getting to spend time looking at all of them.

            Next we headed to visit the Hannover Medical School, where we sat down with one of the lead heart surgeons to here how heart surgery and artificial heart valve pieces have evolved through the years. I was surprised at how young he was for being a heart surgeon—probably in his early thirties. He passed around some of the first artificial heart pieces and I couldn’t believe how big they were. Nowadays they are much more discreet but, especially the first piece he passed around looked similar to a slightly smaller waffle maker. After hearing some background he was nice enough to take us to one of the patients that had a heart pump and let us speak to him and hear about his experience. The man didn’t speak English, so Dr. Wasser and the other doctor had to translate for him but his energy was infectious. He was incredibly upbeat and told us all about how he had traveled all around the world—including the US—as a journalist when he was younger. Now he is pretty much confined to his hospital bed, but he showed us his pump and the little case the controls stay in. It’s about the size of a purse and has compartments for each part. He made it seem like it was pretty easy to manage and not a hassle to live with. One of my favorite parts about medicine is getting to sit down and hear about the patients, so these few minutes with that man was my favorite part of the day. That night we ate dinner at a biergarten and got some amazing Greek food.

            The next morning we hopped on another train headed to Norderney. Since it’s an island, we arrived at Norddeich Mole and had to get on an hour-long ferry to get there. The ferry had an observation deck on the top that swayed a lot in the wind, so it was fun trying to balance and getting a first look at the North Sea. When we got to land we took all our bags to the bike rental building and hopped on bikes for our first adventure. Over the course of this trip we had probably ten different bike accidents that were all incredibly hilarious. No one got injured, but it seemed like every time we had to stop another person went down. Our hostel appeared to be a children’s school with bunk beds. It was fun getting to stay in rooms with six people since we’re used to only having groups of two on excursions. Our next task was a proper bike tour of the island, led by Dr. Wasser. It turns out the island is actually pretty small, but the weather was fantastic and we learned about birds on the island, and about some of the history behind how it became inhabited. The majority of the people that visit are other Germans, so it felt special getting to go to a beautiful destination that wasn’t filled with other American tourists. That night we had a group barbeque cooked by Henning. We had it in the back yard play area that also had a zip line so, naturally, we all turned back into five year olds and tried to see how fast and how high we could swing up on the zip line when it would stop. I want to say it was either Catherine or Hannah that won by going up higher than the actual zip line, doing basically a flip, and then slamming back down. Mission accomplished. We also just hung out altogether and played different games like volleyball and soccer. Because we were only a couple minutes away from the ocean a few people had the idea to change into swimsuits and jump in the North Sea. I was not one of them, but I loved watching them all freeze their butts off and enjoyed seeing the beautiful sunset. I used to think Texas sunsets were the best around but Norderney definitely brought the competition.

            On Wednesday we all woke up excited because it was the day we had been waiting for—the spa day! First we had a lecture by Dr. Friedhart Raschke at the Badehaus and learned a little more about the history of the Badehaus Norderney and about the Thalasso practice of harnessing the healing powers of the seawater, algae, sand, and mud of the North Sea. Finally we were cut loose and were free to roam the sauna and spa as we pleased. We tried a bunch of different saunas, a steam room, and multiple pools with various heat levels. My favorite pool was the one with a very high salt concentration. It was very dark in that area so you could almost fall asleep from the ease of floating and relaxing in it. We also found this amazing lounge room upstairs that had swinging lounge chairs and—my favorite—large slabs of heated marble that you could nap and relax on. I definitely took advantage of this room multiple times throughout the day. Our scheduled mud peel was interesting and new to me. Basically, you get naked and coat your face and body with a mixture of mud and salt and then sit in a steamy room until the hot showers come on and wash off all of the mud. After that peel my skin was so soft and I somehow felt both energized and calm at the same time. Unfortunately, our time at the Badehaus couldn’t last forever, so we got back into street clothes and went out for pizza. That evening we had a mudflat hiking tour with a very nice and informative tour guide that lived on the island. She expressed her concern for the amount of tourists that visited the island annually because of the habitat destruction that occurs from so much foot traffic and housing. We would periodically stop on the mud and she would dig up some very tiny worm or shell that was significant to the area. I loved getting to sink down into the mud and it was very interesting to see where the mud we bathed in earlier that day came from. Later that night some of the girls made a bonfire and we all went down on the beach—including Henning! Everyone pulled up beach chairs and sat around listening to music and telling stories. The sky was so interesting because, although it was maybe 1am, it already looked like the sun was beginning to rise.

            The next morning—our last morning on Norderney—we packed up and headed to the Inselmuseum. This museum shows more of the history of the island. I kind of wish we would’ve been able to visit this museum when we first arrived because it had a lot of models of the original infrastructure on the island and what some of the visitors would wear. Either way it was still an interesting museum and I’m glad we were able to visit it before we left.

            I honestly had no clue what to expect from this visit to Norderney but it absolutely exceeded my expectations. At this point in the trip it was nice to have a more relaxed excursion without the pressure to figure out a lot of public transportation. I’m not sure that I’ll ever make it back to Norderney but I’m so glad I got to experience it and that my first spa experience was at the Badehaus. Next stop: Paris!