October 9th

Cautiously opened the curtains today to see sunshine! Hooray! We were originally supposed to leave Wernemünde last night, but:

Wernemünde has a narrow harbour and for the docking threshold for cruise ships, the critical factor is wind, rather than waves. The Captain announced that the Beaufort Scale had to be less than 6 for us to leave, and last night it was 8. Even though it had calmed down and was nice today, the time slot allotted to the ship for leaving was lost.  Or something like that, the Captain and the local Rostock pilots decided it was unsafe to leave and made the announcement at midnight, and that’s fine by me!

(Thinking of that ship that sank in the Baltic and 852 lives were lost. I’ll happily spend an extra day in Germany. It was to be a sea day anyhow, so this is a lovely bonus)

We had our usual breakfast in our usual spot, and then headed back to town, this time to explore the fish market a bit. There were so many places selling all sorts of seafood

There were a lot of these tables and seats scattered up and down, a perfect spot to stay out of the wind, rain or sun. 

A lot of the food stalls were stand-up only and we wanted to find a sit down spot for lunch. The places that had inside seating charged much more than if you got your meal “to go”. I know that’s a common practice in Europe, and that’s fine, when in Rome and all, but the inside prices were €18-€22 and to go was about €8. Crazy. Anyhow, we spotted this place and got some fish ‘n chips and a Pepsi. Delicious!

We did some more walking, some shopping, some people-watching, some bird watching…

I liked these gulls, they weren’t screechy, and no swooping to steal your food like our loud and rude Canadian gulls. These one just sat and judged you.

We strolled the street until I realized that I hadn’t had a coffee yet today, and we were near the place where I sat during yesterday’s downpour so we popped in there. The server recognized me and asked if I wanted to sit outside again, but we chose inside. I saw some people eating little cream puffs, about the size of a golf ball, and they looked light and yummy, so I ordered one. She asked if I wanted fruit and cream with it, and of course I said “please”. This is what arrived:

Needless to say, we shared, and ohhh….it was so delicious.

After this we walked a bit more and enjoyed the sunshine and the flowers. 

It was time to head back to the ship for some R&R. I guess maybe the ship  had some severe motion going on last night, because we saw these in a lot of places, and I heard someone say that the little store had completely run out of sea-sick meds, as well as cold and ‘flu meds. I pack a little first aid kit with me, and had all of those, plus more, but luckily, knock wood, we have never needed anything, other than an occasional band-aid, but hearing that a cold and/or flu might be making the rounds made us hyper-vigilant about washing and hand sanitizing and not touching things.

Steven decided to have a rest, and I decided to go back to town. It’s such a nice walk, and yesterday I had contemplated going on the Sky Wheel, but the weather was not cooperative. Steven hates heights, so he would never have gone on it, we went on the one in Niagara Falls and he hated every second. I walked over there and watched it go around. I was tempted to get on, there were only two passengers on it, and there no line-up and the sign said it was approximately an 8 minute ride. 

I hesitated, because what if it got stuck and I was left dangling at the top (because it would never get stuck at the bottom) and there I am…watching  my ship sail away without me. Or, what if the operator had a heart attack and no one knew? And I’m stuck going around and around as my ship sails away without me?

 But I threw caution to the wind and paid for my ticket and climbed on. I mean, how often do you get the chance to go on a giant Ferris Wheel and gaze over the Baltic Sea? 

It was worth the worry! I love heights. 

You can see how close the ship is. The building with the curved roof, near the smaller boat is Karl’s. Last night when it rained, the restaurant there was packed. It was perfect for people who wanted to be able to eat a local meal, but didn’t want to go out in the rain.

I had no idea there was a caravan park here, although it is one of Germany’s most popular resorts.

After I got off the wheel, knowing that I was safe from watching my ship sail away without me, I headed back to the town. It is just such a walkable place. 

Mermaids for sale!

So many choices to add to your frozen yogurt or gelato.

A statue is someone’s front yard. 

Private homes. No yards to mow. Perfect. There didn’t seem to be back allys, so I don’t know where they park. A lot of people ride bicycles, but there must be car owners. Maybe a car park somewhere?

A little pub in the middle of the street.

These trees with red berries were all over the place. It felt like Christmas to see them.

And yet another coffee. I spotted this place yesterday (thus the rain on the street) and I wanted to have a coffee there, it was just so cute.

Mission accomplished.

And yes, this is my new favourite place. 

Well. Back to my ship. Dinner tonight will be in the buffet, I think it is a Mexican theme, although there are choices for everyone if you don’t care for Mexican. 

The entertainment was the crew talent show, and some of them are quite extraordinarily talented, the singers in particular, and some are….not…

But it was fun, and all to the credit to them for being brave enough to go in front of us. They all got resounding amounts of applause.

Tomorrow is a sea day, maybe a “sleep-in” day.

October 8

 Today’s curtain flinging showed a drizzly day in Wernemünde, Germany.

I could see people outside with umbrellas, but I couldn’t really see or feel rain. The weather report showed showers off and on all day, so we decided take our time getting ready and having breakfast, hoping the weather would clear up. This is another port that is within a few minutes walk to town.

By 11:00 the rain had stopped and things were drying up, so we headed out. Just a few minutes walk, just before getting to town, right on the waterfront, there is this amazing place called “Karl’s Pier 7”. It’s a gift and specialty shop, which sells Karl’s signature strawberry jam, chocolate covered strawberries, dried strawberries; you get it, all things strawberry, and well as artisanal local foods and wines, gins and whiskey. Plus quirky souvenirs! AND a deli, a restaurant (with inside and outside seating) and an outside area that hosts an annual sandcastle competition. A person could spend hours there, the inside was sort of maze-like and every corner revealed new treasures and trinkets. Clothes, handmade soaps and lotions, a Christmas corner…truly, it was amazing. 

I guess you could curl up with a blanket if you were chilly.

The restaurant and deli.

My morning coffee.

Everything you could imagine jam packed in this place (including lots of jam)

We checked out the winning sandcastle sculptures from this year. They spray them with some sort of fixative and leave them on display until the following year.

Ok…come on, don’t even try to tell me that this isn’t Arnold. I was disappointed in his lack of “completeness” though. 

Warnemünde is the easiest place to walk to, out of all our stops. Leave the ship, walk a few short minutes to Karl’s, then walk a few short minutes to the Sky Wheel, hang a left and walk another minute or two and there you are! The river Warnow river flows through this part of town, called the Alter Strom, the river is filled with bobbing fishing boats, many with small stalls that sell fresh seafood. The tree lined street on one side is crowded with boutique shops as well as the ever present souviner stores. 

Wernemünde was originally a 12th century fishing village, but has evolved into a 19th century seaside resort, known for the widest white sand beach (100 metres wide and 3 kilometres long) on the Baltic coast.

Obviously this is the way to the fish market.

Crossing the bridge; stores and shops on the left along a tree covered street. 

We crossed over another small bridge, ugh, another “Love Locks” one, and once again I felt obliged to take a picture, this one was quite pretty though and there was actually a church beside it where a couple just happened to walk out in their wedding clothes, and posed for their pictures by the bridge. All of us who were passing by yelled a resounding “whooo-hoooed” and clapped our hands. 

You can see our ship in the background, so you can envision how close the port is to town.

I saw a sign with an arrow pointing that said “Edvard Munch House” and I was really surprised 😱. I had no idea he had lived and worked here, and some of his paintings are amongst my favourites. You know the one….

(Stock photo, the painting is in Oslo, Norway)

By now it was looking like rain might be imminent, so we decided to scurry back to the ship, passing by this fellow on the way.

Back at the ship we had a snack and I decided to grab my umbrella and head back to town. It was a little drizzly so the umbrella was a good idea. 

I walked in the opposite direction of where we had walked earlier, and it wasn’t raining hard at all, but no one was around.  I walked through a semi-residential area with homes on one side and shops on the other side. I took a few side lanes as well, but I could feel myself getting turned around so I headed back. 

I had read that if you follow the main shopping street, it would be a short, 15-20 minute walk to the ocean, so I decided to do that. 

For some reason, I didn’t realize that ducks would swim in salt water, although the Baltic Sea is considered “brackish”, which is a mixture of salt water and fresh water. The Baltic has very low salinity, something like between one fifth and one tenth of the open ocean. And fun fact: this forces marine fish (like cod and herring) to live side-by-side with freshwater fish. I always thought “brackish” meant gross and swampy. Learn something every day, even when far from home.

The wind suddenly picked up, the sky grew grayer and there was something almost magical about walking alone to the ocean, I know that sounds sort of corny, but the sea stretched endlessly before me, and there was no one near me, no voices, no distractions. Just me, the wind, and the water. I felt both wonderfully small and also very emboldened. It was one of those unexpected moments and I felt very grateful to be there. The rain started to fall and I decided to head back. Luckily I like walking in the rain!

I found a nice place to sit with a coffee and a pastry, outside, but under one of those large white patio covers. The woman who served me was quite insistent that I go inside, I think she thought I was a bit off my rocker. You can see there was no one else outside, so I couldn’t actually people watch, but all of a sudden the heavens opened and the rain came down! You know how sometimes the rain comes down so hard that if you’re home you go outside to watch? Or if you’re driving you have to pull over? It was that. Thank goodness it was nearly done by the time I finished my coffee and used the bathroom (my hair was doing things that hair was never meant to do, I suspect my server thought I had survived a shipwreck, no wonder she had looked at me so oddly) 

Since the rain had let up, I decided to skiddaddle back to the ship while I could, but when I got to the bridge, I decided to go back to the Edvard Munch house and check out the tiny museum there. 

It was small but cute. You go inside and you can sit in the same veranda that Edvard sat on as he people watched and got some of his ideas from. Further in the house is a small gallery with some of his work. It’s an artist-in-residence home, so there are people painting in some of the rooms. It was fun.

I dried off and cleaned up when I was back onboard. Dinner that night was at the Brazilian Moderno, a churrascaria, which I knew nothing about. When I booked it as one of our specialty dinners, I just thought it was a regular steakhouse. It was actually quite a dining experience. Luckily our server explained it to us; first the salad bar, which has 43 different salad and items…amaze…amaze…amaze…it was by far the most interesting salad bar I have ever seen. Then bring all the sides to your table, you just eat what you want, the dishes were garlic mashed, a black bean dish, sautéed mushrooms, and white rice and they refill the dishes if you need more. The meat comes to your table on huge skewers and they carve off what you want…bacon wrapped chicken, prime rib, sausages, pork, steak and steak and steak. I almost had the meat sweats just from looking. It was very cool. We flipped our card to red in no time.

You-Can-Eat Service: Servers called pasadores circulate the dining room with skewers of slow-roasted, seasoned meats sliced right at your table. 
Token System: You control the pace using a two-sided card or coaster—green means bring on more meat, and red (or flipping it over) indicates you are taking a break or finished.
Salad Bar & Starters: Your meal begins with a large, gourmet salad bar featuring up to 43 items (such as imported cheeses, cured meats, sushi, seafood salads, soups, and traditional pão de queijo Brazilian cheese bread). 
Signature Desserts: The meal often concludes with items like brown-sugar-and-cinnamon grilled pineapple alongside cheesecake or chocolate desserts.

I would have eaten less during the day had I known that this place was going to be so much fun, with so much food! Next time….

The entertainment that night was the same Scottish comedian that we saw the other night, but tonight was 18+ as it was his “adult show”. Holy cow, he was SO funny! 

We had our quick visit to the casino, I usually play the slots with the .88 spin, but I accidentally hit $8.88 on my first spin and won a substantial few hundred bucks! 

Off to bed.