Special note: Please excuse any typos as most of this has been written on the iPad and it insists on putting up words (autocorrect) that look like my typos. That sometimes does not help to get my point across.

Day 7 – Warnemunde Germany – Saturday

Yet another sunny day with temperatures from 13° to 27° and back down to 15° in the evening.

We went for breakfast in the Horizon so we could have an omelette and Lucy could have her coffee. We then went to the collection spot for our tour of the day. We had booked a cruise, walk and beer tasting in Rostock. The majority of the cruise participants went to Berlin early this morning. They went by train or bus and will be back at about 10 PM this evening. The balance of our team will be walking about the town of Rostock and Warnemunde area.



The tour started very promptly and we were on the buses and moving at the prescribed time. We were group of about 35 which was not too bad. Our guide, Alex, was a student in his final year studying education and sports. He wants to teach athletics in high school. His English was pretty good but obviously German is his native language. I could go on at length about some of the tour couples but that is not very productive so I will not go there. We drove to Rostock (15 minutes) and we got out of the bus to see a couple of points of interest in the city. The city had been ruined during the bombings and it has since been rebuilt and augmented toward today's standards of building. The core area has been face lifted but in such a way that it looks like the original cityscape. Alex walked us about for a while stopping at the centre square or the "Porno fountain" which is a number of brass sculptures inside a fountain area that represent families and couples frolicking in the nude. Naturally, lots of people have fun with the sculptures and they are a butt of many jokes. He then sent is off to improve the German economy for 30 minutes just as the stores opened at 10 am. We wandered aimlessly down the street and found our way to city hall and the New Market area. It was filled with calling vendors as they shouted out messages about the freshness of their products etc. The big thing for this weekend was the availability of white asparagus and the were some pretty fine looking large examples. Freddi found a hawker who sold all sorts of small stuff. The two guys who ran it were from Vietnam and spoke in many languages (in a broken fashion) to the many passersby. Freddi stopped to look at some shoes which lead to a try on which lead to a purchase of yellow leather walking shoes. Very different for Freddi - not buying shoes but buying yellow shoes. Lucy managed to rustle up a coffee for the walk and my eyes groped the store signs in search of the green Neptune symbol of Starbucks. I have only seen one since we landed in Copenhagen and that was at the airport. A chai latte would go well one of these days.



The main street of Rostock



We picked up the tour again and travelled through the streets. During the tour Alex let out some information about their social system - 44% base tax, 19% sales tax, an additional environment tax of gasoline on top of their regular taxes for the product, 9% religious affiliation tax for those who claim to be religious on their tax forms (an almost guaranteed way to get that money for the repair of churches as what religious person would lie about that), however all of this tax results in free university, child support of 1500 € per month per child, free rent if you are unemployed along with a monthly allowance that is substantial enough to allow a person with three kids and no work to get enough money to be within 100 € of the income of a person who does work. This creates many unemployed who work for underground jobs for cash under the table. Not much of the earned money makes it to savings. There is not much support for the system and there are changes in the wind.



Playing in the fountain



We returned to the bus to drive the short distance to the dock in Rostock to find the brewery we were to have the beer tasting at. Zum Alten Fitz is a local brewer and we sat down and Alex gave us each a large pretzel and a sour waitress gave us all a small mug of beer to taste. That was about it! No discussion about the process, the popularity of the beer etc. We stayed the about a half an hour before we boarded the bus to go to the church. We then toured the St. Mary's cathedral (13th C) and Alex gave us some history of the church. Parishioners worked hard during the bombings to make sure the church was not damaged as it is the largest church in the area. It survived and some of the history is quite interesting investing. Of particular note is the astrological clock that not only tells time but indicates the date, year, time for Easter for the year, hours of daylight and darkness, the phases of the moon and positions of the sun all by the movement of a couple of mechanical arms. The clock must be "wound" daily and the face will last for 150 years before having to be replaced for the next 150 years. There is a mechanized play that plays out at noon and midnight that we missed but Paul, Mary Ellen and others saw that day when they walked through the church after our tour. We bumped into them at the church as we were leaving just before noon.

We then boarded the bus again and drove back to the water front area to catch a ferry for a cruise down the port area. The ferry was very large and they served coffee and beer to the passengers for the 45 trip back to Warnemunde. The trip was somewhat interesting but very cold as we steamed toward the mouth of the harbour. We guided towards and played chicken with Costa 5k person tour ship as it entered the port. It was impressive but it was listing to the starboard as the decks we filled with a large number of people observing the arrival. Finally we docked and disembarked the ferry. That was followed by some instruction about walking in Warnemunde and a good bye to Alex. Our walk started by seeking out some food. Finally we decided to stop at a deep fry place and had some calamari, some chicken and fries. It was coved in way too much dough to be either healthy or good but it was food and fuel for our long stroll through the town. The town is a quaint little seaside town that had attracted a lot of German people for the local long weekend holiday. The streets were filled and the restaurants were at capacity all along the water. There is a beautiful beach at the edge of town where beach chairs are rented by the hour or day. Some of the chairs were huge shelters from the sun. We walked about and found the longest way back to the ship.

In the late afternoon I took a snooze and had a shower to re-generate my engines. We then went to the Crown Grill for dinner again. This time it was with the whole gang. Marian took wonderful care of us and brought some extra lobster to compliment the wonderful beef and lamb we ordered. The evening was filled with lots of chatter as we shared our own stories of the day. The consensus was that the stop had been a success for everyone and everyone was looking forward to a quieter day the next day. After dinner we all crashed for a night of rest.

Busy Warnemunde Port