🌊✨️ At the beach of Baltrum, the sea washed up the delicate skeleton of Echinocardium cordatum, a heart urchin. Its sharp spines are gone, leaving only the pale, fragile shell with fine patterns.

🫧🤍 The heart urchin lives under the sea, buried in soft sand or mud, up to 15 centimeters deep. It uses its small spines to dig and feeds by filtering tiny food particles like the decomposing remains of organisms and plants (detritus) from the sand around it.

👽🪸 Sea urchins may look very alien at first glance, yet they are actually more closely related to us humans than to snails or insects. This is because sea urchins – just like starfish – belong to the echinoderms.

🪞🤔 If you only look at their appearance, you might think: Wait a minute! Starfish and sea urchins look nothing like most animals. Many animals – including humans – have two mirror-image halves (bilateral symmetry). Echinoderms, however, are radially symmetrical, usually with five identical sections. That might make it seem like they’re even less related to us than snails or insects, which also have two symmetrical sides.

🧬🔬 But appearances can be misleading. Echinoderms, like all vertebrates, belong to the deuterostomes. Snails and insects, on the other hand, are part of the protostomes. A key clue: echinoderms are bilaterally symmetrical in their larval stage. It’s only later in life that they develop their characteristic radial symmetry.

👄♻️ The fundamental difference between protostomes and deuterostomes shows up very early in embryonic development: in deuterostomes, the first body opening (the blastopore) becomes the anus, and the mouth forms later. In protostomes, it’s the other way around – the blastopore develops into the mouth.

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🪸 In my hand, I’m holding a piece of bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus), a seaweed commonly found along the Wadden Sea coast. The small, round bladders are not fruits but flotation organs. They help the seaweed stand upright in the water so its flat fronds can catch as much sunlight as possible. This is essential for photosynthesis – the process of turning light energy into nutrients.

🌊🫧 The bladders are filled with a mixture of gases. This is mainly oxygen, which the seaweed produces during photosynthesis, and nitrogen, which diffuses in from the surrounding seawater. Carbon dioxide, which the seaweed needs to grow, is almost absent because it is used up immediately. Thanks to this high oxygen content, the bladders provide enough buoyancy to keep the seaweed floating, allowing it to capture as much light as possible even at high tide or in murky waters.

🧫🔬 From a biological point of view, Fucus vesiculosus is a brown alga. It belongs to a group called the Fucales within the family Fucaceae. Even though it looks like a plant and makes its own food through photosynthesis, it is classified in a broader group called Stramenopiles, which also includes diatoms (tiny plankton) and some organisms that don’t photosynthesise at all. How exactly brown algae fit into the tree of life is still being studied, and researchers continue to discuss their relationship to other algae and to the ancestors of land plants.

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🤔 What do you think I’m holding in my hand?

🔍 If you’re thinking of a seaweed, you’re already halfway there! But apart from its branching structure, there’s not much of the seaweed left to see. That’s because it has been colonized and completely covered by a colony of tiny animals! These are moss animals (bryozoans), more specifically Electra pilosa.

🏘🦠 Moss animals usually form colonies (zoaria) made up of many individual animals (zooids). Each zooid consists of a soft body and a protective shell.

🪸🤝🪸 Within colonies, there is a division of labor. Strongly reduced individuals form stalk segments, tendrils, or root-like filaments. Other zooids produce reproductive cells – still others become "nurse" zooids or develop into bird’s-head-shaped avicularia or vibracularia, which prevent other organisms from settling on the colony. In these specialized zooids, both the tentacle crown and usually the gut are reduced.

🏡🦠 In short: the seaweed is mainly just living space for Electra pilosa, not a partner. For the seaweed itself, it is usually more of a burden than a benefit.

⛴️🪸 Moss animals can cause damage or maintenance costs to ships, harbor structures, and water management facilities through heavy growth.

💉🧫 On the other hand, they produce chemical compounds that are the subject of medical research, including the potential anti-cancer agent bryostatin 1.

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🌊🌾 The sea gives. The sea takes. It's in its nature. Wave by wave, it carries away what once was, and brings something new to shore elsewhere.

❤️‍🔥🧠 Memories settle within me too – not always willingly, not always welcome. Beautiful things buried beneath pain. Pain laced with beauty. What belongs to me mixes with what I had to let go of.

🪾🌱 I can't hold on to what is in motion. But I can acknowledge that loss also shapes. That what was taken from me creates space for something else. And that some things I thought were broken are part of something greater.

⏳️🌓 The hourglass of the tides doesn’t stand still. And while the sand trickles down, something grows beneath the surface: not the old, not the same, but something of its own.

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🏖 No waves to disrupt the vibe.
🌅 Seagulls judge. The sun sets.
🌊 I don't mind.

✨️ Sand in my hair,
💔 empty shells crack everywhere.
🦶 Step on and get the feeling!
🐚 Love is blind.

🌓 The tide is low but I'm letting go.
❤️‍🩹 I'm gonna be my number one.
🌗 The tide is low but I′m letting go.
❤️ I′m gonna be my number one.

– Atomic Sloth Puppy

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🏕🌛 I spent my vacation on Baltrum at the campsite. That way, I felt especially close to the completely car-free island. The campsite is located right in the nature reserve of the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park, surrounded by dunes and directly adjacent to the salt marshes.

⛱️ Since school holidays hadn’t started yet and I was the first camper of the year, I had the place mostly to myself. Only over the long weekend starting with Ascension Day were there a few other campers. The site belongs to the youth education center of the Lower Saxony Gymnastics Association and is managed and maintained voluntarily by its members. Many things on the site were built by the young people themselves, such as a shelter and seating areas.

🎵🐦🌳🪺🌾 During the day, you occasionally hear children playing, but at dusk and during the night, there’s no sign of people. You hear the trees rustling in the wind, the flapping of the tent canvas, and a choir of countless birds. In the morning, a pheasant crows to wake you. It's currently breeding season—around 300 different bird species are counted in the East Frisian Islands region in May. The campsite is located right between the two most important habitats: dune landscapes and salt marshes. There’s also a small stand of trees on the site, and nearby you’ll find wet meadows and moorlands. When you open your tent in the morning, the first thing you see is numerous rabbits scattering in all directions.

🦭☠️ A mysterious discovery: after the other campers had left, they left behind a skull. After a bit of research, it turned out to be a seal skull, which they most likely found on the eastern end of the island. That’s where seals spend their youth from autumn to spring.

😊 Altogether, I spent 10 nights in the tent, and the weather was mostly good. It was an extraordinary experience—definitely worth repeating!

✨ After my return home, I noticed that my senses were heightened. I perceived smells, tastes, and sounds with particular intensity.

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🧱🏘 Civilisation!

⛪️🔔🏖 Last but not least, I'll show you human civilization. There are three churches and the island bell, which you can hear ringing in the video. There are numerous restaurants and a few souvenir shops. There are two grocery stores and a 24-hour store with vending machines in the town hall building. Beach chairs are available on the beach, which you must reserve.

✨️😁🌊 You can also see my soft face on my first day on the island (for comparison, see my rough face after 10 days in the previous post).

🪶📃🕰 Life and history of Baltrum

📖🫅🗺 Baltrum is the smallest of the East Frisian Islands in the North Sea. It was first mentioned in 1398, when Widzel tom Brok gave the island – then called "Balteringe" – to Duke Albert of Bavaria and later received it back as a fief. The name "Baldatringe" appeared even earlier, in the 11th century. Ancient writers may have known of it even in the 1st century AD.

🎣🦭🛶 In the past, the sea often threatened the island’s small population. Around 1700, most people lived from fishing and hunting. Villages were sometimes abandoned because of shifting sand or storm damage, such as the great storm of 1825. From 1870, sea walls and dikes were built to protect the land.

🫧🌊🔔 Baltrum became a seaside resort in 1876. The Old Island Church from 1826 is one of its landmarks, with the famous "Island Bell" from a Dutch shipwreck. As visitor numbers grew, the Large Island Church was built in 1930, and the Catholic St. Nicholas Church followed in 1957.

🌳🌹🌿 A small highlight is the Rose Garden between the two main villages, cared for by volunteers and known as Germany’s smallest spa park. There are beautiful figures and the path is made of shells.

🐴🚴‍♀️🛴 Baltrum has no cars or motorcycles. People travel by horse-drawn carriage, bicycle, e-bike, or e-scooter, giving the island its calm and relaxed atmosphere.

💫🦥🐾 My plush son Vincent misses Baltrum at least as much as I do!

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🐯🔥 By day 10, it was obvious that I'd been on the move the whole time. The sun, the salty wind, and the exertion of hiking a total of 200 kilometers were clearly visible on my face. Tanned leather, but that sparkle in my eyes – a wild man!

🌳🌿 I immersed myself deeply in the nature of this island world, regardless of whether it rained or the night blinded me. I persevered exactly as long as necessary. After returning home, I hobbled for six weeks because of a stress fracture. But it was worth it!

❤️‍🩹🪺 But why did I actually return to this place, even though I was always here with my family, who had caused me so much pain in my life?

🧠🫧 One of the hardest challenges after psychological or emotional abuse is learning how to live with the memories I shared – especially the beautiful, powerful moments that once felt so meaningful. These memories are often tied to a relationship that now casts a shadow over them. What once felt precious can now seem strange, heavy, or distant – as if it no longer truly belongs to me.

🤲✨️ A key step in healing is to look at these memories in a new light – not by hiding them away, but by taking them back. When I put my own presence at the center, I free the experience from the old bond. I take it back into myself – as part of my wholeness.

🎒🥾🗺 Sometimes it helps to return to familiar places. This time not in the company of the past, but alone, and on purpose – for me. To feel again, to see again – and to meet myself again. Because the connection that matters most now is the one I have with me.

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🌬⏳️🌊🌱 Elemental forces!

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🕳🐇 Follow the rabbit!

🥰 When I was on Baltrum in May, I also saw some young rabbits. They're so cute! I photographed one (picture 3).

🐰 European Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) were introduced to the East Frisian Islands early on. On Baltrum, the species has been recorded since around 1700. A regulation from 1869 ordered their extermination, which caused populations on several islands – including Baltrum – to disappear by the end of the 19th century.

🐰 Rabbits were released again only in 1962. Today, at least 2,000 animals live there on average. Some are descendants of escaped domestic rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus), but over time the natural fur color of wild rabbits has prevailed. As on other East Frisian Islands, Baltrum also has animals with different fur colors. Black rabbits are called "pastors".

🐰 Rabbits have a strong influence on the island’s ecology: their digging and burrowing loosen the soil, create open patches, and thus promote a greater variety of animal and plant species. In older dune areas, this can start new succession processes, increasing both landscape and biological diversity.

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