Duesseldorf Digest and Bonn Blog: I’ll be back

Sunday, June 16, 2019

I’ll be back

First of all, if you didn’t read the title in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice, I’m disappointed. But really, Norderney is probably my favorite place thus far. The BadeHaus is literally a sanctuary that everyone should visit because something happens to your mental state when you enter. I now 100% understand the meaning of “zen”. Our lecture that week was actually on Thalasso Therapy, or the healing power of the sea. Let me tell you, I’m now a believer. Norderney also has like zero allergies because all the wind (that’s the only downfall of the island, it’s VERY windy) comes directly off the Nordsee and has no pollens or dusts in it. Now as someone who literally charts the allergy pills I take so that my bid doesn’t get used to a single kind, that’s my kind of air. And I made sure to breathe as much of it in a possible because you actually get taxed on the air when you get on the island because it’s so coveted. Basically, trips to Norderney boost your immune system.

At the BadeHaus (a spa beyond what any American could even comprehend) there were numerous kind of baths, saunas, therapies, pools and I got to try them all! My absolute favorite was the salt bath. It was exactly what it sounds like, a small pool with a very high salt concentration. It was heated to just above body temperature and in a dark room with lights on the ceiling that resembled the Northern Lights. I may have taken a few naps in that pool during my stay. My second favorite is what they called the fire bath. And as you would imagine, it was HOT. But, it was open to the air which was quite crisp at some points in the day so it was a good juxtaposition. My “routine” was to swim few laps in the main pool, go meditate (and sometimes fall asleep) in the salt pool, then go relax and let my muscles and joints heat up in the fire bath. After this I would go to the ice cold shower that was like 20 feet up on the ceiling and let it just beat on my back. I would do a couple rounds of this and my body would feel like I just had a deep tissue massage. It. Was. Marvelous.

We also did a mud therapy treatment with silt (a special mud from the Nordsee) and salt. It’s called a schlicbahanda. Basically, we went into a dark room with 3/4 girls from our group and stripped down and rubbed mud all over our body. Everywhere. Then we sat or laid on these concrete benches for a steam treatment for about 15 minutes. Then the showers came on suddenly and you washed yourself off. We could then choose to go to the sauna or back to the pools. I went to the sauna. I stayed in for about 10 minutes and by that point my towel was SOAKED (Germans go into the sauna completely bare, I however was not that confident so I had a towel wrapped around me). I rinsed off and re-clothed and decided I liked the pools better.

That week I also went on a few bike expeditions, saw an awesome little church, tasted mud as we sloshed through the mud planes and learned about some of the critters that live there, and took a nap in a special chair that blocks out wind. It was a great week if I do say so myself.