Wednesday 5th October - Warnemunde

So we've arrived in the old East German port of Warnemunde and todays tour is "Molli and the Minster", but that's not until the afternoon, so this morning we could have a little bit of a potter around the town.

Warnemunde is actually the port part of Rostock.  Rostock, an industrial city, "bought" the town of Warnemunde (I don't quite know what that means or how it was done) to ensure access to the sea. For us though, it is a very charming little town.  As I understand it, it's the German equivalent to Whitby, and they regularly come for a day out.

Sculpture depicting one of the festivals in Warnemunde

So in the morning we had a wander and found the ibruprofen I'd been looking for yesterday, and in the afternoon we escorted the tour.

I have to say our tour was really quite good.  My german guide spoke good english, was really enthusiastic about the minster that we visited and cracked a good few jokes that had the the whole bus laughing.

Our first stop was at the Bad Doberan Gothic Minster.  It is was of the few surviving Cistercian Minsters left in old East Germany.  It had closed as a minster during the communist reign, and most of it's fixtures had been put into storage before Russian rule stepped in and destroyed or removed anything to do with religion.

Those fixtures and fittings have now been re instated, and the minster is quite something to look at.

From the minster, it was a 5 minute bus ride to board "The Molli", a single gauge 900mm steam tram railway that has been use since 1886.  It was originally built to take the wealthy from their holiday homes in Bad Doberan to Heiligendamm. The little steam trains and carriages have been in use since the 1930s and were delightfully original.

It was quite an experience.  Peter and I were able to stand on the platforms outside the carriages and enjoy the smell of coal smoke and steam as the little train made it's way to the coastline.

What I found amazing was how the train travelled along the streets of the villages we passed through in a similar way to a tram.  Quite extraordinary.

Then we reached the coast and the seaside.  It was much like a typical seaside day at home I should imagine, freezing cold and blowing a gale.  But the tea and cake provided in a hotel was very nice.

So that was our German port.  Once again, we've enjoyed our day here.  It's a classical night in the show lounge tonight, something we didn't really fancy, so we retired early, to catch up on photographs and blogs.  The captain has warned of rough seas tonight and tomorrow.  It's been OK so far tonight, let's hope it's not too bad tomorrow, I'd really rather not be lying in bed feeling seasick.