Good dinner and show last night, but I caused a bit of consternation trying to get my next bottle of wine when I did not have my wine package card with me. Following an "assessment" by senior staff, I was permitted another bottle - but I dare not forget my card tonight.
One little piece of information from Sweden - there are no longer any Post Offices, so Sweden is taking a very different approach to the postal business.
Just before midnight, we sailed under the Great Belt Bridge with not a lot of clearance, and by 7am we were docked in full sun at Warnemunde in Germany. About half the passengers headed off to Berlin - an 11 hour day (6 hours driving). We wandered off about 9am in what was a clear sky. Warnemunde is a major port area at the mouth of the Warnow River, with major shipping activity extending about 12 miles up river to Rostock. Ships and boats everywhere, ferries of all sizes, pleasure boats, fishing boats etc, etc.
Rostock is a city of 200,000 inhabitants with pretty much all of it's sights in its compact Old Town. We caught the train, about 5 stations, and a quite graffiti filled uninspiring trip (the ticket machine made myki look good - about 40 seconds to process each single instruction, coin etc). Great trains, however, with tram system running below the station. Took the tram to Old Town and wandered New Market Square, the local market, St Mary's Church, dating from the 14th century, the Rathaus (Town Hall), rows of reconstructed merchant houses and, with the onset of light drizzle, to University Square and the Kropelin Gate (one of two surviving towers of the old town wall). Seemed quite a vibrant town with modern shopping integrated into many older buildings.
Caught a ferry back to Warnemunde, a very pleasant 50 minutes sailing past numerous marinas, shipyards, ferry terminals. Also some nice waterfront residential properties. The river was often more than 400M wide and it was most enjoyable with a Rostock pilsener in hand (Rostock is a well regarded brewing area).
Wandered the boat harbour area of Warnemunde with lots of boats, fishing and pleasure, and attractive winding streets and housing. The harbour front is full of restaurants, market stalls - and on one side, fish sales. The town, which is a very popular holiday spot, also has a very long and wide sandy beach with dozens of beach chairs and mini cabanas for hire, as well as a very wide promenade with lots of day trippers.
Sunshine returned as we reboarded and we took advantage of it before dinner and the night's show, a Canadian comedian with quite a bit of audience participation.
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