Reha, the last day - the end of independance

Today is the day. I have read through 3 books and 1500 pages, I drove nearly 450 kilometres by bike, I enjoyed heavy storm and rain as well as sunny days on the beach....seems as if I know every tree and every sandkorn over here now. I met good and bad people, I received lots of smiles and one person wanted to give even more to me (;-))...what else could I ask for??

And yes-it is high time to leave and say goodbye to the good time that I had over here. I enjoyed it. Never got homesick and soaked up every moment. But as always, I am beginning to get restless again. So, I don't regret the time over here but I need to leave to open another chapter in life. I feel curious, powerfull, restless again...even though I know that this will be the end of 3 weeks of independance where I was able to do whatever I wanted during my freetime.

Since many of the readers of this blog were asking me about the beautiful photos from my Reha (they aren't really that good...taken with my mobile-phone cam only, but thanks for being polite), I published them all in a web album.

Reha, day 14 - Relaxation and pirates

Today was a relaxing day again. To give you an idea of how such a relaxing day looks over here, here is my schedule for today:

9.00 Uhr Muskelentspannung / Muscle Relaxation

about 15 people sitting together in a circle, closing their eyes and listening to a psychologist who is telling them of how to consciously strain and relax their muscles.very effective way of exploring your body.

10.30 Uhr Rückenschule / Learning of how to use exercises for back problems

nothing but another lecture from a therapeut. This time about the correct way of sleeping/lying, matrazes, pillows etc.

11.30 Uhr Fango

heating up before massage

12.00 Uhr Full-body massage

with my favourite Masseuse....hmmmm

15.00 Uhr Gesprächsgruppe Schmerzpatient / Focus Group for pain patients

Together with a psychologist we tried to find about the mysery of a „vicious circle“ of pain – psychology – physiology. Now we know that this vicious circle exists and hopefully next week we will find a way to break out of it.

The physically hardest exercises were the meals today!! So, at 4.00 p.m. I jumped on my bike and drove into the wild forest for some activity and geocaching. There was a cache called “Strandpiraten (beach pirates)”. I needed a few days to solve the quests and find out about the coordinates of the cache box. Today I found it easily and the cachebox was hidden very nice. Under a tree with a fishermans net, under a plate…just like you would expect a real pirates treasure to be hidden. Fortunately Captain Black and his pirates were somewhere sailing the seven seas and I was able to log the cache alone and in silence

This days kilometres: 42,65

Overall kilometres: 300,77

Reha, day 10 - Geocaching

Today I wanted to do some geocaching again and drove about 20 kilometres by bike to the first location. That was easy but at the second location, I found out that this cache was not evenreachable by bike. So, I had to walk all the way to the cache. 3 kilometres to + 3 kilometres fro!!! That could have been a nice walk in a nature reservate, but it was sunday and many many people seemed to have a similar idea. So, the whole walk looked a bit like a Polonaise….that’s not what I like and after finding the cache hidden under a tree, I decided to not go on searching for today but to spend the rest of the day at the beach, listening to the waves and the wind, feeling the sun and salty air on my skin.

This days kilometres: 54,65 + 6 kilometres walking

Overall kilometres: 212,40

Reha, day 2 - a day by bike

This day I spent mostly on my bike. In the mornings I did 20 kilometres along the Baltic Sea Shore. I spent some time at a small Sail Boat Regatta and enjoyed my time there, lying in the sun and listening to the sound of the waves.

In the afternoon I did some more geocaching and exploring the woods north of Ahrenshoop. The forest there may be approximately 15 x 10 kilomtres so that’s a wide area there. It is even called a “jungle” and yes, there are plants of 2 ormore metres height. The terrain changes very often from swampy to white sand, from good ways to muddy paths. But everyway trees and plants. If you have had enough of woods, just look at your compass, turn direction west and after a few kilometres you will always reach the white, sandy beach of the Baltic Sea. That was fantastic! I was nearly alone there because the weather was very windy with rain in between. So I often made a break and lay down in the white sand to watch the seagulls and to see how the waves constantly trying to get back what ones belonged to the sea.

The bike routes over here are not the best. Very often they are made of concrete slabs 180 x 30 cm, and there is always some space between them. Feels as if every second there is someone hitting your bike with a hammer. So I tried to avoid those concrete slabs and tried to drive on the small 30 cm besides them.

It was a nice but tyring day. In the end I had driven nearly 60 kilometres and spent some 5 hours out in nature. My muscles were getting harder and harder and I even missed supper ( but I expected that and it was not too bad). Tomorrow I better have a rest, because on Monday I am expecting a lot of exercises and therapy waiting for me.

This days kilometres: 58,73

Overall kilometres: 86,53