"" Writer's Wanderings: Germany--Warnemunde and Schwerin

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Germany--Warnemunde and Schwerin

After a day at sea, we came to our first port on the Baltic part of our cruising adventure. Warnemunde, Germany, is the port used to access Berlin which is only three hours away by train. The train station is conveniently located across the street from the cruise terminal and a train stands ready when a ship is in port to load up with passengers for the trip.

Since we had already done the excursion into Berlin on a previous Baltic cruise, we opted to stay in the area and explore on our own. Unfortunately when we did our homework for this port on the internet, we could not readily understand the timetables and procedure for buying train tickets. But we did find a recommendation from fellow Cruise Critics (a forum for cruisers) for a private tour company called Friends of Dave. We contacted Dave and set up a tour to see Warnemunde and a town nearby, Schwerin, where there was a castle to explore.

Dave met us and another couple outside the cruise terminal and we embarked on a most interesting day in Germany. Our guide, an American living in Germany the past ten years, was well versed on the area—the history and culture. He began with a short tour of the river harbor and then took us to the train for our trip to Schwerin. At this point we were extremely glad to have enlisted his help. We had to change trains and only had a seven minute window to find the other platform. We would have been left behind for sure on our own.

The town of Schwerin was a quaint German town that was fun to explore. Dave was well prepared with more of the history of the area. We were amazed to find out that he had only researched this area in May.

Lunch was at a wonderful little tavern/café with outdoor tables. We ordered wiener schnitzel with a delicious mushroom sauce and fried potatoes with bacon bits. Apple cider was an alternative to Pepsi products. This was the first place we found that didn’t have Coke Light. Cider was good though.

After lunching like true Deutscheren, we headed for the castle. It was a magnificent building outside and inside. For me, the gardens were the best part—trim and serene and teeming with blooms, color, texture, unusual and familiar plants. After our audio tour inside and our stroll in the gardens outside, we rested at the café and enjoyed cappuccinos and strawberry sundaes with fresh strawberries, vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. It was still strawberry season in this area.

After our 45 minute train ride back to Warnemunde, we finished our tour of the seaport resort. The town was charming with cobble stoned streets and lovely cottages that had enclosed “front porches” that were originally intended to be used as temporary quarters for visitors in the summer—sort of a temporary bed and breakfast in the old days.

The beach area was extensive and covered with the German version of beach clam shells. They look like boxes and open up to become covered beach chairs.

The Warnemunde light house stands tall at one end of the boardwalk and is a focal point. Soft wispy grasses covered the sand dunes creating picture perfect scenes along our walk.
A soft pastel sunset finished our day—the perfect ending.

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...