The Mysterious Island of Norderney

Norderney is one of the East-Friesian islands in the Northern Sea and was the destination of the Postercowboy‘s latest field trip. It’s only about 50 minutes by ferry from the German mainland, and at some point, it might’ve been the perfect place for time-out. Unfortunately, about twenty years ago, two brothers decided to use a part of their billion dollar inheritance to ‘modernize’ the island. In consequence, everthing has become ridiculously expensive and Norderney is now another hotspot for mass tourism. The approximately 6,000 locals who live on the island (the investor brothers NOT among them) now have to deal with roughly six million tourists every year. Needless to say, real estate prices have gone through the roof as well, so many people who work on the island can’t afford to live there anymore.
The investors’ latest project is another big hotel, which will close the last available open spot. They claim it will NOT be a 5 Star place for the super rich, but it will have large rooms and suites. Plus a shopping mall and a few (no doubt much smaller) rooms for the live-in servants. Uh-huh.

Mrs. Postercowboy overheard a local lady say something like: ‘When I came here in 2002, it seemed a good idea to live in a place where others spend their vacation. These days, it feels a lot like Alcatraz.’ Frankly, I felt the same thing. Just like Alcatraz, Norderney is so close to the mainland that freedom is always in sight. Yet, for those who are stuck there, it can be impossible to reach.

On Norderney, tourists are technically not allowed to drive around in their car, but they are a allowed to bring it over. With the additional foot and bicycle traffic, that’s A LOT of action. Still, Norderney does have its charms and it offers lots of inspiration for the movie and movie poster lover.

With all those unusually small houses, narrow streets, the busy buy nevertheless oddly quiet atmosphere and all those Germans strolling about for no good reason, it very much reminded me of ‘The Village’ in the 1967 British TV series THE PRISONER:

With the Postercowboy in the role of Number 6, desperately trying to get back home:

Another letdown was our accommodation. What I had hoped for was something like this:

What I got was this:

The place made me feel like THE HUNCHBACK OF NORDERNEY:

Or perhaps the Somnambule in THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI:

Look at this seemingly harmless picket fence. A place of scenic beauty to some, a reminder of the opening scene of BLUE VELVET to others:

Always a good sport, here‘s the Postercowboy doing his best trying to blend in:

For some reason, Norderneyers are not too fond of street numbers, they prefer to give weird and sometimes creepy names to their houses instead:

As if The Prisoner, Dr. Caligari, Blue Velvet and houses with weird names had not been enough, Mrs. Postercowboy pointed out a building that could have served as the perfect location for Alfred Hitchcock‘s THE BIRDS. With the constantly screaming doves providing the soundtrack.

It’s hard to see on the photo, but they even have frigging birds behind the upper left windows!

Also, take a look at the weird thing in front of the house: MAYBE this is just an oddly shaped street lamp. Compare it to an image of the Martian war machines from THE WAR OF THE WORLDS that can be seen HERE and decide for yourself. What makes this even more disturbing is that these things are buried in the sand all over the island…

As if that had not been enough, I learned that very few people dare to let their dogs run free on Norderney, and apparently for good reason, as they tend to end up like this:

Needless to say, the Postercowboy took the first chance he got to flee from this island of horrors and is now more than happy he made it home safe to Berlin.