North Sea coast
An earring lost in a Strandkorb on Westerland beach
Westerland's baskets are numbered, and a basket number is as close to a map reference as a beach gets.
Whether an earring dropped in a Strandkorb on Westerland's beach can be found comes down mostly to one detail: which basket it was. The attendants may have to shoulder the baskets and carry them off when the tide or the weather calls for it, so the number and the beach section are what tie the earring to a spot on the sand.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone on the German North Sea coast with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the place, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Besides Westerland on Sylt, we cover Büsum and Sankt Peter-Ording in Schleswig-Holstein, and Duhnen and Döse in Cuxhaven and the island of Norderney in Lower Saxony.
Keep the basket number with you
Photograph the basket so its number shows, then take a second picture along the beach with the nearest crossing or the Musikmuschel in it. Go through every pocket of whatever you had in the basket with you, try not to rake through the sand around it yourself, and let the basket attendant know what has gone.
In Büsum the beach sections are named after the stairways up the dike. On the other beaches, promenades and greens, send a pin and name the closest pile building, beach crossing, bench or landmark.
Places we cover on the North Sea coast
- Sylt
- Westerland beach and its Strandkörbe
- The Westerland promenade and the Musikmuschel
- Brandenburger Strand, Westerland
- Friedrichstraße and Strandstraße, Westerland
- Büsum
- The Grünstrand on Büsum's dike
- The sand beach of the Watt'n Insel, Familienlagune Perlebucht
- Büsum harbour and the Museumshafen
- The mudflats in front of Büsum's dike
- Sankt Peter-Ording
- The Seebrücke and the beach at Bad, Sankt Peter-Ording
- The Erlebnis-Promenade and the Buhne, Bad, Sankt Peter-Ording
- The beaches at Ording and Böhl, Sankt Peter-Ording
- The Südstrand and its mudflats, Dorf, Sankt Peter-Ording
- Dorfstraße and the Marktplatz, Dorf, Sankt Peter-Ording
- Cuxhaven
- The beach and Strandpromenade in Duhnen
- The mudflat route from Duhnen towards Neuwerk
- The beach, Strandpromenade and Kurpark in Döse
- Norderney
- The Weststrand and the Nordstrand, Norderney
- The Kurplatz by the Conversationshaus, Norderney
- The Kaiserwiese and Kaiserstraße, Norderney
From the Westerland promenade to the Kurplatz on Norderney
Two islands and three mainland towns, each with its own mix of beach, dike and town centre.
Westerland, from the beach to the upper promenade
Westerland's Strandkörbe stand in three places: on the beach, on the lower promenade and on the upper promenade, where they can be locked with a chain. The Musikmuschel is in the middle of the promenade, and Friedrichstraße and Strandstraße lead to it from the town. Brandenburger Strand, where the Windsurf World Cup is held, is part of the beach in front of the town.
Büsum's Grünstrand on the dike
The main beach at Büsum is grass on the dike, with wide promenades, ramps and benches, and Strandkörbe all along it. Stairways and ramps lead up to the crown of the dike, and each beach section takes its name from the numbered stairways on either side of it. Displays at the information huts on the dike show the tide times.
The Watt'n Insel in the Familienlagune Perlebucht
The Watt'n Insel, a sand beach in the Familienlagune Perlebucht, is reached over the Seebrücke. Its bathing basin holds water whatever the tide, with a non-swimmer area and a bathing island.
Sankt Peter-Ording, from Ording to the Südstrand
The sand is up to two kilometres wide, with Strandkörbe and pile-built beach buildings, in sections: Ording, Ording Nord, Bad, Böhl and the Südstrand below Dorf. In Bad, the Seebrücke, over a kilometre long, crosses from the dike to the beach, and the Buhne is its forecourt. The Erlebnis-Promenade beside the dike has themed playgrounds and picnic spots, and Dorf has shops along Dorfstraße and a Marktplatz.
Duhnen and Döse in Cuxhaven
Duhnen and Döse have sand beaches with Strandkörbe, and the Strandpromenade runs behind them through both districts; on the Döse stretch there are seats and rest areas looking out over the sea and the shipping lane. From Duhnen, a well-marked route crosses the mudflats to the island of Neuwerk, on foot or by horse-drawn Wattwagen. The Kugelbake, Cuxhaven's landmark, stands in Döse, where the Elbe meets the North Sea.
Norderney, from the Kurplatz to the Nordstrand
The Kurplatz is the green in front of the Conversationshaus, used for football, frisbee and picnics. The Kaiserwiese is a wide stretch of promenade and beach beside the historic Kaiserstraße, the Weststrand is the beach quickest to reach from town, and the Nordstrand is still an easy walk from the centre.
What we do on our side
No switchboard
There is no call centre in between. One person reads your WhatsApp messages, arranges the search and reports back on it.
Numbers a detectorist can walk to
Along with your pins and photos, the detectorist receives the small details that place them: a Strandkorb number, two Büsum stairways, a bench on the promenade.
A phone from a moving boat
A phone that went overboard once a boat out of Büsum was under way is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Nothing booked blind
We explain the costs before any search is booked, and you are free to sleep on it.
Tides, baskets and grass on this coast
What shapes a search on this stretch of coast.
Sea level at Westerland and Büsum
On average the sea rises and falls less at Westerland than at Büsum, going by the tide predictions of the BSH, the federal hydrographic agency. Give us the hour you last had the earring or ring, and we set it against the predicted water level for that time.
Baskets that move
Attendants carry baskets away when the sea or weather demands it, so besides the number we ask for the beach section and a photo with something fixed in it: a crossing, a stairway, the Musikmuschel.
Grass on the dike and in town
Büsum's main beach and Norderney's Kurplatz are grass. There, tell us where your blanket lay, any game played across it, and when you last remember wearing the ring, watch or earring.
Out on the mudflats
Guided mudflat walks set off from the dike by Büsum's lighthouse, the pile buildings on Sankt Peter-Ording's Südstrand, and Döse and Duhnen. People go barefoot or in close-fitting boots, so tell us what you took off, where you left it and when you set out.
Questions about the North Sea coast
I took my earrings out in our Strandkorb at Westerland, and one of them has not turned up since.
Note the basket number, the beach section, and whether it stood on the beach, the lower promenade or the upper promenade. Numbers that follow each other do not always stand side by side, so a photo of the basket with the Musikmuschel or a beach crossing behind it helps more than the number alone. Baskets on the beach and the lower promenade are left unlocked, and walkers may rest in one nobody has rented, so tell the basket attendant straight away.
Which numbers do you need for a wedding band lost on the Grünstrand in Büsum?
Büsum names its beach sections after the numbered stairways on either side, so look at the numbers on the two stairways nearest where you sat and send us both. Then say whether you stayed on the grass, walked up to the promenade on the crown, or went down the steps towards the water. A photo from your spot with a stairway in it fixes the place.
Does the bathing basin at the Familienlagune Perlebucht drain at low tide? My Oura ring came off in it.
No. The bathing basin does not depend on the tide, so it holds water at low tide as well, and it has a sand beach, a non-swimmer area and a bathing island. Tell us which of those you were in or near, and how deep the water was where you stood. The water-sports basin is a separate one, so if you were out on a board or in a kayak, say so.
Our car keys went missing between the Buhne and the playgrounds of the Erlebnis-Promenade in Sankt Peter-Ording.
The Buhne is the forecourt of the Seebrücke, where the Dünen-Hus puts on its open-air events, and the Erlebnis-Promenade starts beside it and runs along the dike, with themed playgrounds, picnic spots and shaded places to rest. Start from where you parked, give us a pin for each place you stopped, and say where the children played. It is worth asking at the Tourist-Info by the Altes Rathaus in Dorf too, in case someone handed the keys in.
My ring slipped off during a mudflat walk from Duhnen on the marked route towards Neuwerk.
Tell us when the walk set off, whether a guide led it, and roughly how long you had been walking when you noticed. The route from Duhnen is well marked, so say which side of it you were on and where you stopped. Mention cold, wet hands too, since cold fingers let a ring slide off more easily.
My phone went into the water at Büsum harbour while we were boarding the boat to Helgoland.
The excursion boats leave from the fishing harbour, where the crab cutters also tie up. Tell us the time, which boat it was and where along the quay you stepped aboard, and ask the crew whether they saw it go in. A photo taken from the spot where you boarded lets the detectorist find the same stretch of quay.
Somewhere on the Strandpromenade between Duhnen and Döse, my pendant slipped off its chain.
Say whether you were at the Duhnen end or nearer Döse, where there are seats and rest areas looking out to sea, and which of them you used. The Kugelbake, Cuxhaven's landmark, stands where the Elbe meets the North Sea, so tell us whether it was in sight. Give us the size of the pendant, and photograph the chain.
How do I show where a watch came off during frisbee on Norderney's Kurplatz?
The Kurplatz is the large green in the town centre, directly in front of the Conversationshaus, and the Konzertmuschel stands on it. Mark where you played in relation to the Konzertmuschel and add a photo from where you stood. A frisbee game spreads over a lot of grass, so tell us which way the throws went and how far you ran.
North Sea coast
The basket number belongs in your first message
On the grass at Büsum, the two stairway numbers do the same job.
Open a WhatsApp chat with the town, what has gone and a pin dropped where you were sitting or walking. We reply with what we still need to know about the spot.