Warnemunde, Germany and COPENHAGEN!

Monday we woke up in Warnemunde, Germany and got off the ship to meet our guide, Tobias, for a tour of the small city of Warnemunde then to Rostock and train ride to Schwerin Castle in the countryside in a town called Schwerin (pronounced schweer-een). 

Warnemunde, which means mouth-of-the-river, the Warnow River, is a small fishing village with a busy fish market along the waterfront and many old quaint homes in the village.  After a quick look around we headed into Rostock by tram and toured their slightly larger city.  There’s an incredible cathedral in town with an astronomical clock dating back to 1885.

A Portion of the former Berlin Wall

Very busy Saturday fishmarket.

A Smoker and....

smoked fish!

Quaint village homes

The oldest building in Warnemunde dating to the 1400's.  The bench out front is called the Weisenheimer bench!

Rostock Square

The cathedral.

The astronomical clock

A pipe organ with 6,000 pipes!

Sunny skies over Rostock's Cathedral

Building facades in Rostock

We toured the busy market town of Rostock looking at old buildings, fountains, stopping for a coffee and Internet along the way.  Jillian is exchanging emails with her producers about the music being written for her movie and feels the need to “check-in” everyday if she can.  Gordon and I don’t mind either since it gives us an opportunity to write to the girls.  The entire trip we have been between 5 to 8 hours in front of Alison in New York and between 8 and 11 hours with Natalie in California.  Needless to say, we haven’t spoken with the much.

Later we took an hour-long train ride into the town of Schwerin, grabbed a German lunch (the food still sucks!) and then walked over to tour the old town and castle.    It is a lovely castle, HUGE, at the edge of a very large lake, Schwerin Lake, just off the bustling cobbled town streets.  Again, pictures weren’t allowed inside the building.  So lake and garden pictures are all I have.

So our guide Tobias was very friendly.  An actor AND tour guide, he was animated but seriously into describing all kinds of architectural styles.  Toward the end of the day I was beginning to be a bit bored with his incessant description of buildings, building styles, pre-war, war, post-war.  Blah blah.  Jillian managed to switch the topic to films on our hour ride back into Warnemunde, which was helpful!  And Tobias told us about his latest film role in Russia playing a German tank driver!

Scenes of Schwerin Castle

The funny thing about Germans is they pronounce their v’s like w’s and their w’s like v’s.  For instance, a vow of silence is a “wow” of silence or a “weil” of secrecy!  The Warnemunde River is pronounced “Varnemunde”!  What’s up with that?

We said our goodbyes to Tobias, which by the way is pronounced toe-bee-is, had a quick German beer in a café and went back to the ship to prepare for a French meal served in a new restaurant for Oceania called Jacques named after Jacques Pepin, his only signature restaurant.  Delicious!!!  Many, many, many miles will need to be walked and many, many, many Groove Cycle classes will need to be attended upon my return to the U.S.!

The Little Mermaid

Tuesday, we were in Copenhagen on a cooler day, no rain but overcast.  We walked from the port for just over a mile maybe a mile and a half to the Little Mermaid Statue commemorating Hans Christian Andersen.  We boarded a Hop-on, Hop-off bus from there and went into the city of Copenhagen to see what they know.  We walked the Nyhaven Gammelstand

The Stroget outdoor shopping mall

And many squares and avenues.

Copenhagen is a colorful BIG city.  It’s unfortunate that we were there on a Sunday as many shops were closed but we got a pretty good idea of the layout of the City and saw the sights that topped our list.

The fascinating Gammelstrand at Nyhaven

The Copenhagen Opera House

Check out the windmills that go out into the sea

Our Pilot departs.

Later, after dinner, Gordon and I went to a comedy and magic show, which was quite entertaining.