Warnemunde

Many Baltic Sea cruises stop in Warnemunde Germany and take their passengers on excursions to Berlin.  600 people from our ship would make the 12 hour excursions to Berlin with 6 hours spent on the train to get there and back.  That was not appealing to us so we reserved the Rostock Highlights tour in the nearby town of Rostock.  However Mr. Wonderful wasn’t feeling all that great this morning so we decided to stay close to the ship.  Fortunately the stomach upset didn’t last but we missed the bus tour. 

It was very warm today so we enjoyed sitting on our balcony watching the pleasure boats and ferries passing by.  We also explored some areas of the ship we hadn’t visited.  We had lunch and then walked off the boat to the seaside town of Warnemunde.  My guidebook said it was a “5-minute walk” to Warnemunde’s main street but it was more like 15.  This turned out to be the case in more than one port where guidebooks or Viking’s info claimed we would be docked right in town.  That was accurate in Bergen and Aalborg where we could walk off the ship and be in the thick of things.

Between the Saturday crowds in this seaside town, the heat and tourist shops we found Warnemunde rather disappointing.  There were some pretty houses to photograph on one of the streets.  Would we find something more interesting on the next block or should we head back to the ship?  The issue with my Iliotibial bands was acting up and the pain of walking made the choice for us.  Only problem is we had to walk back to the ship.  When we finally got there I decided to go back to the hydrotherapy pool in the spa.

After dinner we enjoyed the air on deck and were there to watch the hundreds of passengers return from Berlin.  Viking had warned them that security checks to reboard would take some time but they tried to make it fun.  Once a passenger cleared security there was a small crowd of staff waiting with cold drinks to welcome them on board.