Strandkorb

“I still carry images of a smooth pale beach, hear the shrieks of seagulls borne low on a salty breeze, and see the white little shells with serrated edges half-buried in the warm sand.… Planted all over the beach, like Easter Island monuments, were the Strandkörbe, a kind of beach chair/cabaña — literally a beach-basket, a clumsy squatting object large enough to seat two adults…. I can still conjure up the muffig, musky smell of its interior — wet rattan and cloth, made by wet bodies that had been dipped in the salty sea, rolled in sand and tangy seaweed and baked in the sun.”