Page 198 - WDT Winter 2018 japan

visit, with half-beamed buildings, Victorian homes and guest
houses next to crumbling Soviet-era structures, interspersed
with suave luxury hotels. A couple of miles further north,
another beach scythed into the forest is Prora, a former Nazi
youth camp, long abandoned and decaying, now transformed
into affordable hostel lodgings, condos, and timeshares. It’s
a living time capsule, a history of conquest and prosperity,
decline and renewal.
Our first Binz hotel, Upstalsboom Hotel Meersinn, was
an easy ten-minute walk from the train station. Comprised
of three 19th century villas, linked together by walkways and
bridges, the hotel was easy to find on Schillerstrasse, which
runs parallel to the Strandpromenade, the beach boardwalk.
Modern and casual, filled with light and art, the hotel strives to
be completely organic, from the pillows to fine dining down-
stairs. Everything here is tuned to cleaning and clearing out
toxins by good living. Centrally located, the hotel is only one
block to the Hauptstrasse, or Main Street, where you’ll find a
festival of shops and restaurants, pubs and guest hotels, all
leading to the Pier. The hotel’s restaurant was the first and
only restaurant on the island with 100% organic food and
beverages, and serves only locally sourced fish and produce.
The interior bridge across to the neighboring building, a work-
ing brewery, which advertises locally crafted beer from the
island’s hops, was most useful.
Daily activities are posted on a blackboard in the lobby
each morning, offering biking tours, yoga, pilates, hikes. The
spa, Artepuri Med, is sleek and polished, which is how I felt
after my Shiatsu treatment. On top of a full menu of body
scrubs and massages, the spa offers a range of Far Eastern
traditions, with a European touch. The session was unlike any
I’d experienced. As I lay on an oversized mat on the floor, the
therapist, a long-limbed Nordic blonde who spoke as little
English as I do German, applied pressure with her thumbs,
hands, elbows, knees and to pressure points on my body.
Shiatsu also focuses on rotating and stretching legs, arms,
and joints. I slept through it; it was so relaxing and fabulous.

The famous seaside “Baeder” architec-
ture in Binz offers a mixture of styles
including Modern and Art Noveau.
Right: Ruegener Healing Chalk
Opposite: Healing spa at Hotel Am Meer,
site of the miraculous Healing Chalk
Wrap. A menu of different saunas here
are free to the hotel guests, including
Finnish, Infrared, and hot steam rooms, in
addition to a full menu of massages and
therapeutic healing treatments.

198 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018