Tour de Norderney

Some chocolates that I made

Wow. Where do I begin. This week was a lot of new experiences. I guess if I could describe this as a Katy Perry song it would be “Hot N Cold”. Let’s start with Belgium.

My weekend trip to Brussels started wonderfully as my train to Cologne was delayed by twenty minutes. My transfer time between trains was only fifteen minutes so I definitely missed my connection. Luckily, another train to Brussels left a few hours later. I thought this was my abyss. However, once I got to Brussels I had an amazing time! I took a chocolate making class, visited the Atomium, ate some waffles, ate some ramen, shopped, and overall just walked the streets.

The Atomium, built for the World's Fair in 1958

Less than twelve hours after returning to Bonn, I was on another train to Norderney for our class excursion. The train ride was very long and I’m pretty sure we all fell asleep at some point, but mostly, I was dreading what was to come once we landed on the island. It was time to bike. The group gathered around the rental shop as the man assigned us our bikes. He was like the Ollivander of bicycles since he would look at a bike, then look into the crowd, searching for some mystic quality (most likely our height) that would connect us with our bikes. Well, you know what they say, the bike chooses the rider.

Surprisingly, I didn’t have too much trouble with biking. The bike I got was a lot nicer than the one I practiced on at home. It seemed like most people were hesitant with their bikes, but soon we were cruising around the field next to the rental shop. Little did we know that pain was soon to come. I am sore in places that have never been sore. Whenever I sit still, my legs feel like they are still pedaling, muscle memory helping induce some sort of bike-related ptsd that will haunt me for the next few weeks.

The water level of the badehaus

Besides biking, we did other cool things on Norderney. The badehaus was really cool. When Dr. Wasser said this thing was two hundred years old I was expecting a small, old-fashioned pool. The badehaus was anything but small and old-fashioned. It had so many pools to choose from and really nice facilities. My favorite pools were the really hot water bath and the salt bath.

Barbecue at Haus Detmold

Of course, with the theme of this post, the mood of the trip changed the next day. It started out like a normal excursion day, we took a tour of the badehaus museum, walked around the city, and, of course, biked quite a bit. Our afternoon excursion was a hike through the mudflats. The mudflats in Norderney are a world heritage site home to several exciting and unique creatures. Unfortunately, mother nature decided to rain on our parade. While the rain wasn’t a forceful downpour, it was continuous for the full hike. At some point during the hike, my raincoat decided that it could not go on, and water soaked through to my clothes that, as of this moment almost two days later, are still somewhat damp. The hike was super interesting and it was fun to walk barefoot in the mud, but the experience would have been more enjoyable with a little more sun.

There were definitely highs and lows this past week. The wifi was erratic and the showers were cold, but I collected a ton of seashells that I never plan on returning and had a fun barbecue. My flight to Salzburg leaves in just a few hours, so I’m already off to my next adventure!

See you in a week!