Page 192 - WDT Winter 2018 japan

Taking the Cure

on Rügen Island

By Kathi Diamant
Photos by Kathi Diamant and Byron La Due

hree days was not enough to see all of Rügen Island,
but it was enough for a miracle cure. Like most
Americans, I had never heard of Germany’s most
Tpopular and largest island by area. Located on the
northern coast of Germany’s Baltic coastline, it is one of a
dozen spa resort towns along the Baltic coastline. We hadn’t
even planned to go. It was our second choice after Sylt jilted
us.
My husband Byron and I longed to visit Sylt, a narrow spit
in the Baltic Sea close to Denmark. Seduced by stories of
Sylt’s remote and wild beauty and first-class dining options,
we impulsively bought our flights to Hamburg, the closest
major city, before securing hotel reservations. Even at the tail
end of summer, Sylt wasn’t available to us; it was completely
booked, with not one room anywhere on the island. Rügen,
even though it is officially Germany’s most visited island, was
also busy, but at least it could accommodate us in two differ-
ent hotels in Binz, one of seven seaside health resorts on the
island.
Only three hours by train from the Hamburg airport, or two
hours from Berlin if you set out from there, Rügen turned out
to be serendipitous and proved to me its centuries-old reputa-
tion as a center for rest, relaxation and, in my case, healing.
Leaving the Pomeranian mainland from the charming
Hanseatic city of Stralsund, we crossed the short span to
Rügen, the largest inland town on the geographically diverse
island, and continued east to Ostseebad Binz. For the next
two nights, we stayed in different spa hotels and took advan-
tage of two of the offered wellness treatments. One of the
treatments, either the Chalk Body Wrap at the Hotel am Meer,
or the Shiatsu treatment at Upstalbooms Meersin, or both of
them together, I don’t know, healed me, although I didn’t real-
ize it at the time.
While off the map for most travelers from the United
States, Rügen has been a draw for northern Europeans,
who have come for sun, sand and health, both physical and
spiritual, for thousands of years. Rügen’s diverse landscape

192 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018