June 17, 2013
Our final port in Germany was Warnemunde, a resort town on the Baltic Sea. Warnemunde is about twelve miles from Rostock, another hanseatic port town. Truly, the first leg of our cruise involved visits to multiple historic hanseatic ports in Northern Europe. They have all been different from each other and none looked anything like what I had expected. I suppose I expected villages frozen in time. The reality is that old buildings have been preserved or rebuilt in cities that have their own present day life and energy. This is a good thing: otherwise visiting historic sites would be little different from visiting Disney World.
Warnemunde and Rostock had been a part of the former East Germany. Little recovery from the devastation of WW II took place during the fifty years of Communist rule. It was apparent that most of the restoration of Rostock and the resort development of Warnemunde have occurred since the reunification of Germany in the 1990's.
Michael and I took a local train from Warnemunde to Rostock early in the morning. Warnemunde is at the end of the local commuter line yet service was excellent with trains every twenty minutes or so. We did our own walking tour of Rostock and discovered participants in the organized ship's tours at most of the sites we visited. We used a map obtained from the tourist information center. It must have been the same one used by the hired tourist guides as we all seemed to be following the sights in number order. We did have to wait five minutes for the information center to open and used the time to visit the facilities at the local MacDonald's. Aside from the cultural impact of this "international" restaurant on the local food habits, it is wonderful to find clean, free restrooms almost everywhere in the world.
Michael and I particularly enjoyed the main church with its historic but not functional mechanical clock dating from the 1500's. We saw two other restored churches, the oldest university on the Baltic, a gate and part of the original wall around the city. We looked at restored buildings on the main market square and walked on some back streets between the destinations marked on the tourist map. We gained an appreciation of how well the residents managed to restore their architectural treasures while creating a livable, functional city. The waterfront had changed the most. Today pleasure boats fill contemporary marinas. Rostock's river is not deep enough for large modern ships. There is some sports fishing but no commerce flows through the small rail station next to the pier. A few old rail cars are displayed there. The walk, the tram and train rides were a success.
After wandering in Rostock for several hours, Michael and I returned to the Silver Cloud for lunch and a rest. In the afternoon, we ventured out again to explore Warnemunde, a surprisingly attractive beach resort community. The temperatures were in the high 60's and the weather was sunny. I gather that this is considered spectacular beach weather for northern Germany. Though it is no Riviera, Warnemunde is a popular summer holiday spot. We could see from the sheltered beach chairs that people sit out on the beach in high wind and cool temperatures. Even though it was early in the summer season, there were many people on the beach. Small crowds were enjoying themselves in the local restaurants and many adults and children were walking on the streets checking out the local shops for the usual tourist souvenirs. Warnemunde has become a European cruise destination but not all of the tourists were from the three cruise ships tied up at its docks that day. Perhaps some of my positive impression is due to the sunny skies and moderately warm temperature. Aside from Amsterdam, this had been the only sunny day so far. Both Rostock and Warnemunde seemed more cheerful as a result.
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