May 29, 2014 - Warnemunde / Rostock, Germany

Happy Herren Day! (more about this later!)

Day 2 of our 9-day Baltic cruise started early – mainly because I misread the cruise guide of moving our clocks forward an hour. We were supposed to do it at the end of Day 2 … not Day 1! OH well… we got up at 5:30 instead of 6:30!

We booked our shore excursions with a private company, Saint Petersburg Tours, instead of taking the cruise ship excursions. Our tour met at 8:45 this morning and we only had 8 people plus the guide – nice. The weather was overcast and windy, about 50 degrees F when we started our walking tour of Warnemunde, Germany. The town was founded around 1290 and bought by the town of Rostock in 1320 because it was had a good shipping port and was quite a profitable commerce center.
We walked along the fish market area where the merchants were selling fresh fish – raw, smoked, or cooked. The smells were yummy!

We passed by the Monk house, where the painter lived in the late 1800s. It is now an art museum/school.


The light house was built in 1898. After our walk through town we took a train to Rostock for the next part of the tour.

Rostock was founded in1218. The town was beautiful!


The Town Hall building was quite interesting – the back of the building still has the original façade, but the front was covered over with a baroque style to make it look more modern! The front is painted pink and has archways.

The painting is underneath the archway and covered to help preserve the paint.

We went to St. Mary’s Lutheran Church which was built in 1230AD with an addition to the original building in 1440. The baroque pipe organ has 5702 pipes with 83 registers. While the inside of the building is not nearly as ornate as some churches we have visited, it was still impressive.
We especially liked the astronomical clock located inside the church which was added in 1472. The clock has an apostle walk twice a day and we were lucky enough to be there. At 12:00, the door on the left of Jesus opens and Judas goes through, then the door on the right of Jesus opens and statues of the apostles come out, pass before Jesus for a blessing and continue on through the door on the left of Jesus (Heaven). Once all of the apostles have passed into Heaven, the door shuts, once again leaving Judas outside. It was kind of amusing and considering gear driven clock has been operating since 1472, a good graphic reminder to the citizens who might not have been able to read, to live a good life or you won’t get to Heaven!
The lower part of the clock was also very impressive. It had a huge disc with over 2000 different bits of data representing everything from sunrise and sunset times, dates, Easter dates, etc. The disc has been replaced every 130 years starting in 1492.

Our tour also took us past Rostock University which was founded in 1419 and buildings were completed in 1867, as well as the Convent of the Holy Cross.

Behind the convent is part of the 13th century city wall. The wall originally had 22 gates, now there are 4 left.


We stopped at a small pub for lunch. Their specialty was smoked herring on black bread. Tobey wanted me to have that and he was going to have the bratwurst. Being a good sport, I agreed … at least until I had the first bite. I don’t like sushi and the texture of the herring was too much like sushi for me so we switched.

After lunch we walked to the pier for our river cruise back to Warnemunde where we spotted several sailboats in the water – a regatta for the Herren Day holiday! By the time we got back, the sun was shining and we decided to take another walk through Warnemunde to see the beach area and town.

These Germans are hardy folks! Tobey and were wearing 2 jackets (YES!) and the wind was still chilly, but there were lots of people on the beach. Several had on jeans and jackets, but there were many wearing shorts and no tee-shirts!

So I told you that today is Herren Day. This is a holiday in Germany – Herren (Father’s Day). Almost all of the shops are closed today and only restaurants and bars are open. Unlike the US where we associate family time with Father’s Day, here the men all get together and drink. They don’t have to be fathers – it’s more of a Guys Day Out! We saw lots of groups with matching tee-shirts pulling their carts of beer.

One group included a guy that was dressed in a pink tutu. He was selling trinkets to earn money for his bachelor party while the other guys were helping him. I didn’t have any Euros, so we didn’t buy anything, but he did pose for a picture with us!

We also met a group of about 12 women who were celebrating the day. Their husbands and boyfriends were off doing their thing, so they left the kids with the grandmas, and they were off drinking! We took their pictures, they shared shots with us, and we had fun visiting with them.

Back on the ship, we had dinner with a couple from Arkansas, Bob and Debi. When we went to the dining room they asked if we minded sharing a table and Tobey that it would be fine, as long as they were fun – and they were! We laughed and talked and enjoyed the dinner, then went to see the German folkloric show together. We hope we run into them again!

Tobey and I grabbed crepes for dessert after the show before calling it a night. Tomorrow we get to sleep in – we have a day at sea.