Warnemunde and Rostock, Germany Journal & Photos - Holland America Westerdam - August 7, 2005

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Matt went to work out about 12:30 PM and I went up to eat where I had sushi, pork chops, and cod. It was raining like crazy at the time so I read a book while waiting for Matt to show up who had lunch after his workout. The rain stopped and we headed off the ship at about 2:00 PM. Matt made the mistake of giving me a hard time for forgetting my room key a few feet outside the room. He said it was the only thing I really needed to remember when we left. This came back to bite him in the ass when he remembered he had heard we needed our passport to leave the port area. I always have mine, Matt’s passport was eight floors away now in room 8037.

We left the ship finally and the train station was right outside the cruise ship area. This time I chose poorly and Matt let me know it the rest of the day. I said we should head to Rostock, about 20 minutes away by train, and come back to Warnemunde later in the day. Everything I read said there was nothing to see in Warnemunde. Well there really wasn’t anything to see in Rostock and Warnemunde was a really cool laid back ocean town with a great beach. If we had just walked 30 more feet past the train station we would have found this out.

The train to Rostock took about 20 minutes and Matt was intrigued the whole way by a pipeline that followed the train line. We got to the train station and walked about a half mile into town. It was Sunday and very few people were out and about. We reached the older part of town entering through the Steintor Gate where we saw the first of many bizarre statues that Matt tried his best to interpret. The first was basically to storks screwing around or as Matt called it Storks Pork.

We headed to the Town Hall, which was a red building that looked more like buildings I’d seen in Bavaria. The Town Hall or Rathaus had a square in front with another strange statue in it. Matt gave a lame interpretation of some holocaust scenario. We turned left down Kropeliner Strasse to Universitats Platz. Another really bizarre statue was in this square that had lots of naked frolicking humans along with various animals including another storks pork statue and a razorback. The fountain was different also as it was a rolling cobblestone area with lots of little fountains so you could walk through the fountain. We had a beer at the Grand Café and headed back towards the train station through the Rosengarten and past the city wall that looked like it was brand new.

We got to the train station and for once I got the cheap round for beer. There was a store that sold 0.5-liter of beer for 1.48 Euros. When we boarded the train back to Warnemunde it got pretty packed with soccer fans of FC Hansa Rostock who were going to a game. The roundtrip ticket by the way for the Warnemunde to Rostock train was 3.00 Euros.

We got back to Warnemunde and went through the train station and in one block of walking realized we should have just stayed in this town. There was a canal that ran to the sea and on one side was a bunch of temporary stands selling beer and food. A lot of stands even had there own smokers. The other side was building with stores and restaurants. The canal was full of fishing boats and restaurant boats. The town reminded us of a smaller more laid back version of Ocean City. The canal was packed with people, most of whom we expected lived in Rostock who had left town to come to the beach, which were just walking the canal enjoying what had turned into a beautiful day.

Matt was having a good time reminding me that he wanted to check out Warnemunde first before heading to Rostock. He did finally admit that we would have wanted to see Rostock anyway whether first or second. The thing is that the daily bulletin given out by the ship hardly mentions Warnemunde. It actually only gave it a one paragraph write up as opposed to a few columns on Rostock.

		We had a beer at the Tauvn Veermaster one of the many stands on the near side of the canal to the ship. We crossed the river and walked the length of the canal and ended up at the beach area of Warnemunde. It is one of the widest beaches I’ve ever seen. It was in the 70’s but the beach was packed. We ran into the casual attitude of the Europeans here regarding nudity finally. Matt had jumped the wall to the beach and I had walked up to the opening in the wall to the beach so he was at the water a little longer than I. He said he saw three, shall we say healthy women swimming naked before I got down to the beach. When I got there we had a lady just pull off her pants in front of us to change and another older redheaded lady come out of the ocean naked. Welcome to Germany.

It was pretty windy and the beach is a fun beach with no fun police like Ocean City so there was a bunch of people flying kites. There were two stands selling beach chairs and food and beer. We sampled both stands, the Strandekorbe Tretboote and the Hardback Bistro am Strand. My round again was cheaper and Matt thought the people at the second stand had ripped him off. Actually they had put in a deposit for the beer glass into the price so people wouldn’t walk off with them. I did the opposite, since we’d paid a deposit I decided to keep the glass.

We spent quite a while on the beach just enjoying the day. We finally started to head back to the ship. We found a water closet, bathroom, which did not charge .50 Euros. Matt was ecstatic as he had been really upset at paying to go to the bathroom. Of course we paid the price in the end, as it might have been the smelliest bathroom I’d ever been in.

Matt had a couple of funny bathroom stories throughout the day. First he paid to use one bathroom and before the door could shut to the bathroom someone caught it and went in on his money. Second was he paid to go to the bathroom right before we got on the train and when we got on the train the bathrooms were free.

On our walk back to the ship we stopped for a beer near the smelly bathroom at Strand-Grill am Teepott. Teepott was this futuristic looking building right next to the old lighthouse in town. We bought some souvenirs in the Teepott. Outside in front of the lighthouse that was built in 1897-1898 was an old man that was playing the saxophone.

We got back to the canal and had one more beer at Das Boot. The girl there had an electronic waiting pad that we had seen also in Rostock. It’s an electronic pad that they just touch what you order and it spits out a bill right there. It was pretty neat bar technology if you ask me. We had to head straight back to the ship now as it was getting towards 9:00 PM and they were have an German Oktoberfest Party at the Lido Pool.

The line was huge when we got to the pool but the wait was worth it. The bratwurst, knockwurst and suckling pig were great. Many of the crewmembers were wearing Oktoberfest hats. It’s fairly funny to see an Indonesian or Pilipino wearing an Oktoberfest hat. That was basically the day for us. I grabbed a plate of desert and headed to the room. Matt needed some more suckling pig and sauerkraut before he came back. Sometime during the evening he made a jaunt to the casino and lost $10.00.

Warnemunde Arrival (16 Pictures)	Rostock Departure (9 Pictures)	Warnemunde Beach (15 Pictures)	Warnemunde Am Strom Canal Street (10 Pictures)
Rostock - Steintor Gate to Town Hall (14 Pictures)	Warnemunde Canal Seafood Stands (13 Pictures)	Warnemunde Ocean Walk (9 Pictures)	Warnemunde Oktoberfest Party (11 Pictures)