My Trip to Norderney... and the Hero's Journey Through the Abyss

As I ride in a train back from Norderney, I’m looking outside the train window to see rays from the sun piercing through the clouds onto the green, picturesque German countryside. I am also slightly coughing, possibly sick, and impossibly exhausted. But those are just symptoms that my life does not have a place for at the moment so we are ignoring them and proceeding.

Norderney was beautiful and exactly where I was supposed to be this week. After the amazing but overwhelming Paris, a couple days to learn about the local wildlife, traditions, and healing Thalasso of this magical little island in the North Sea was basically perfect.

Thai Chi the first evening on the beach, and workouts with Wasser in the following mornings were as refreshing as the cold water of the ocean, which we jumped into at the end of each workout session. The salty air (that we were paying a tax just to breathe) was invigorating. The Badehaus, a critically important center of relaxation and healing in the center of town, was absolutely incredible. We floated, sauna-ed, and mud treated our worries away for hours at a time and my skin felt soft and like new.

And then there was the Mud Flats.

The Mud Flats of Norderney are an incredibly biodiverse and important to the island as a whole. Many of the species of birds on the island came here to feed on the innumerable amount of clams and mussels present in the squishy mud. Special worms burrow their way through the mud and leave clean, bacteria-free mud behind them (the mud used in our specific spa treatment). All the animals and life we were able to see in these initially unassuming, albeit massive flat plain of partially flooded mud that we started hiking across in our bare feet that Wednesday afternoon.

The only problem was my lack of an actually waterproof jacket, the constant rain during the entire experience, and the cold temperatures made infinitely worse by being soaked to the bone in the cold water that clung to my sleeves that were no longer doing much to keep me warm. I shivered my way through and tried my best to listen to the interesting information given by our guide, but at the end of two hours I was ready for nothing more than to go shower and never leave the Haus Detmond ever again.

Waking up the next morning with a slightly sore throat and an increasingly runny nose was not encouraging… but that’s the life as I’m living it right now. We’ll see what comes of it when I depart for Rome tomorrow.

Overall I think Norderney was one of the most pleasant parts of my entire trip. I loved riding my bike through the little idyllic shopping centers and the beautiful, towering dunes. The spa, once again, will likely make me never settle for another spa again. But most importantly, I will remember Norderney as a destination that (for the most part) left me feeling the most relaxed I’ve felt in a while. The effects and implications of these feelings of relaxation should not be understated- especially after this, I think I can see one of the few ways that treating an entire person’s well being could have huge medical benefits.