Saturday, July 7, 2018; Warnemünde & Rostock, Germany

Saturday, July 7, 2018- Warnemünde & Rostock, Germany

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The ship was making its way up the navigational channel for Warnemünde, Germany as we pulled the curtains aside.  We were having another perfect day with scattered clouds, beautiful blue sky, and a light wind. The temperature was in the upper 60’s to lower 70’s.  

We had breakfast in the buffet.  Lots of people were in a rush to get off the ship as soon as it docked because they had excursions to Berlin booked.  Berlin is a 2-1/2 hour train ride from Warnemünde, so all those passengers were going to have to look forward to a 5 hour round trip commute to Berlin.  There were also passengers disembarking from the ship with their luggage.  We chose not to go into Berlin, and instead, explore the coastal cities of Warnemünde and Rostock.  

Our excursion started with a short walk own the pier from the cruise ship terminal to a boarding area for harbor tour boats.  There was plenty of seating and the windows of the boat were actually clean.  We sat at a comfortable table near the bow of the ship with equal views out port and starboard sides.  Rostock is a very important harbor for Germany.  During WWII, it housed the major shipyards that turned out much of the German Navy’s ships and subs.  There is still a naval ship yard, and a large commercial shipyard building cruise ships.  We could see a medium sized river cruise boat under construction.  There also appeared to be a submarine under construction inside one of the large buildings.  Liebherr, a major manufacturer of marine cranes has a huge factory on the water, and we saw a large building with Caterpillar painted on the side where they presumably provide a lot of marine power plants.  There are also wind turbines and a huge cooling tower associated with a giant coal fired power plant.  They apparently have to import all their coal from Russia, so Germany is working on increasing their reliance on renewable energy sources.  

Warnemünde and Rostock are major cruise ship ports, hosting over 180 cruise ships each year.  Our ship arrived just ahead of a German cruise ship.  It was funny that both ships had to motor into the center of the Harbor and then execute a full U-Turn before docking at the Cruise ship terminal near the Harbor entrance, which is right next to the end of the train lines that lead to Berlin.  

We got off the tour boat in Rostock and were bused a short distance to the center of town, where they had a very large pedestrian mall and remnants of the old Rostock City wall with the tower like city gates on each end of the city.  St. Mary’s Cathedral is adjacent to the pedestrian mall.  It features a 15th century astronomical clock that displays not only the time, but all important church dates, moon phases, zodiac, and many other things from 1472 forward. The current calendar is valid through 2150.  There was also a large open air public market square in front of the town hall.  Janet was disappointed not to find any bargain amber, but found some interesting necklaces made with amber pieces that had the rind on one side, and crudely polished clear amber on the other side.  The amber jewelers in the ship’s shops seem like much higher quality pieces.  We’ll have to see if we don’t end up with a nice amber pendant to add to Janet’s jewelry collection by the end of the trip.

We then reboarded the bus, which took us past the Rostock zoo, which is apparently one of the largest zoos in northern Germany.  Our destination was the Trotzenburg microbrewery in Rostock.  We took a brief tour of their brewery operations, but the employee who usually leads the tours was on vacation in Japan at the time, so her substitute tried to read a script off his smartphone screen.  It wasn’t too convincing, but fortunately, our guide pretty much knew the process by heart and supplemented his halting presentation.  Having gotten through that formality, we headed into the beer garden and got to sample their light Pilsner and a darker amber beer.  Unlike many other tours, at this beer garden, we could pretty much drink and much beer and eat as many pretzels as we wanted.  It’s a good thing it was noon, so we could imbibe without guilt.  We were all pretty happy by the time we loaded back up into the bus for the return trip to the ship.

We arrived back at the ship with time to sleep off the beer, and then grab some Brats in the poolside grill before afternoon Tea.  

We attended the afternoon general trivia, and managed another win.  We had actually tied with another team, and tied on the tie breaker question, so Oskar, the cruise director’s staff awarded both teams prizes.  We actually got to choose our prizes, so Janet grabbed a wine bottle stopper and Ben grabbed a Regal Princess coaster.  

We then headed off the ship and did a self guided walking tour of Warnemünde, which was conveniently right off the cruise ship terminal, through a tunnel under the rail station tracks.  The main cathedral in town features a sculpture of Saint Christopher giving baby Jesus a piggy back ride.  The beach at Warnemünde was very crowded.  The upper beach is covered with wicker chairs that we learned are a local invention by Wilhelm Bartelmann, and which are now commonly seen on beaches around the world.  There was a brisk breeze that parasurfers were taking advantage of, and lots of kids playing in the rough surf. There were also plenty of industrious German boys building sand castles to challenge the incoming surf. Warnemünde has a very long and beautiful beach that is a very popular destination for vacationing Germans. There were several RV parks filled with compact RV’s and lots of hotels in the town. We walked out onto the jetty delineating the main harbor entrance and watched the German cruise ship pull out of the Harbor with a salute of horn blasts and an escort of colorful tour boats.

The street paralleling the jetty is lined with restaurants and bars, with scattered tourist shops, and lots of Harbor cruise boats. 

We returned to the ship well before any of the Berlin excursions had returned. We had surf & turf for dinner with prawns larger than many of the lobster tails we have seen served on lobster night. 

The evening showtime presentation was a talented musician who primarily played a sax backed by the Regal Princess band.  He did bring out an unusual electronic wind instrument that he set up so that it sounded like an electric guitar. He also played a curved soprano sax that looked like a baby sax. He also showed off some impressive circular breathing.  

Tomorrow is our second at sea day and first formal night as the ship makes it’s way across the Baltic towards Tallinn in Estonia. Our clocks move ahead an hour tonight.