Sunday, August 4, 2013

Sunday, July 21, 2013 – Warnemunde, Germany – Mostly Sunny – 82F

Amsterdam to Warnemunde: 679 Nautical Miles

Local Information:  Warnemunde, formerly located in East Germany, is a sea resort in the Rostock District (it has a population of about 8400 people).  The beaches at Warnemunde stretch for more than two miles along the Baltic Sea.  Warnemunde is about 200 miles from Berlin.  We last visited Warnemunde in 2001 on the HAL Noordam (re-incarnated since then).

Beautiful day in Warnemunde, Germany…

Breakfast up in the Ocean View Cafe – waffle, cottage cheese, fruit compote – my standard breakfast.  It was good.

On tour today - “Historic Gustrow” – a visit to a castle (Schloss Gustrow) and the historic village.  Gustrow is located South of Warnemunde-Rostock in the Mecklenburg region of North Germany.  About 1.5 million people reside in this region. Gustrow proper has a population of almost 31,000 people.

The bus has good A/C and is comfortable and soon we are off.

 20130721_en route to Guestrow (Small)

En Route to Gurstow

Our guide is the overly perky – Durten (low Deutch for Dorothy).

20130721_Durten our guide (Small)

Durten, our Tour Guide

The Schloss Gurstow is a Renaissance Style Castle that dates back to the original occupant, Baron Herzog Ulrich zu Mecklenburg (1527 – 1603).  It has been renovated several times and on this visit, the grounds are being renovated. 

20130721_Castle grounds-under reno (Small)

Castle Grounds under Renovation

There is a 3 Euro fee to shoot pictures in the Castle so there won’t be any shots of the inside of the structure.  A number of the passengers did cough up the photo fee and took their money’s worth of pictures.

20130721_Dukes Castle - Gustrow (Small) 

20130721_Castle panorama (Small)

The Schloss Gustrow

Sometimes, it is difficult to get someone to take your picture.  I came up with a unique way of doing it.

 20130721_self portrait (Small)

Shadow Self Portrait

20130721_Castle courtyard (Small)

  20130721_Castle courtyard 1 (Small)

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Inner Courtyard of the Castle

The stone structure below was used to help riders get on their horses.

20130721_Helps you hop on your horse (Small)

Horse steps

The item below was used by the Duke to print coins.  Wish we could all do that.

20130721_Dukes coin making machine (Small)

Money Maker

From the Castle, we walked to the Dom Gustrow (Gustrow Cathedral), 

20130721_Guestrow and Cathedral (Small)

20130721_Guestrow Cathedral hovering angel (Small)

Gustrow Cathedral

The Cathedral, dating from the 14th Century, contains the famous “Hovering Angel” sculpture created in 1926..  The angel is suspended by two chains (no pictures – 3 Euro charge) and is monument of the victims of WWI and, by extension, WWII.  You cannot walked under the angel since she is suspended over a fenced off area.

 

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Hovering Angel (from: Güstrow: Exploration & Discovery

From the church, the group walked to the town of Gustrow, which was almost totally shut down. 

St. Mary’s Church, a Gothic Church, rebuilt in the 19th century is a very impressive structure.

20130721_on the way to town (Small) 

20130721_church on city square (Small)

St. Mary’s Church

 20130721_Gurstow city square (Small) 20130721_church city square (Small)

Above – Town of Gustrow

I tried, without success, to find some WiFi during our free time. 

Soon we were back on the bus and headed for our barbecue lunch at the Hotel Kuhs (does that mean the “Cow Hotel” in German?).

20130721_lunch Hotel Kuhs (Small)

Hotel Kuhs

The lunch menu consisted of grilled pork sausage, a salad dish (corn, cucumbers, and tomatoes), garlic bread, and a drink of your choice.  I thought the salad and bread were great and the beer was a mild German beer.  I liked the lunch a lot.

20130721_Salad bread beer (Small)

My Veggie Lunch

After returning to the ship, I headed back out to Warnemunde to seek WiFi.  Even though it was a Sunday, this beach town was wide open and wall to wall with Germans.  However, no WiFi.

20130721_Warnemuende Canal (Small)

Canal leading out to the Harbor

20130721_looking back at harbor (Small)

Constellation Docked

20130721_Warnemuende beach (Small) 20130721_beach (Small)

Gillions of Germans at the Beach

After walking all of Warnemunde, I stopped in at the hotel near the cruise terminal and one of the waitresses told me that WiFi was available at Karl’s Coffee Shop around the corner and just past the church.  I found the church but didn’t see any Karl’s; I did see a coffee shop and for the price of a Coke Light (1.9 Euros) I had 30 minutes of WiFi.  I caught up with most of the e-mails.

Ellen had a longer tour than mine so I had dinner on the back deck of the Ocean View Cafe – I had a great pasta dish (spaghetti, tomatoes, garlic,spinach, onions, and parmesan cheese) made to order.  The place was empty since more than half the ship was in Berlin.  Ellen joined me when she got back.

Because of all the Berliners, there is no show tonight so the best place to be was the Reflections Lounge, where you could watch the ferries come and go and catch the terrific sunset over the Baltic.

20130721_view from Reflections (Small) 20130721_interesting ship (Small) 20130721_Another beach (Small) 20130721_ferry arrives (Small) 20130721_sunset and contrail (Small)

20130721_sunset 1 (Small)

That’s not me in the picture below even though some might disagree.  My version of Mighty Joe Young and Charlize Theron.

 20130721_beauty and the beat 2 (Small)

Making progress on my audio book.

Because of the Bering excursion, no ShowTime tonight - “A Night Under the Stars” Poolside.

Sea day tomorrow…

Pedometer: 8841 steps; 4.19 miles; 488 calories; 1:30

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