Warnemünde - Rostock, Germany

Thanks to the advice of previous cruiseline travelers and some local German tax colleagues, we were persuaded to explore the Warnemünde - Rostock seaside area instead of taking the expensive day trip into Berlin. And we're glad we did.

For 15 Euros we purchased a family pass for the train that was sufficient for our group of 6 adults (us + grandparents + auntie + uncle) and the kiddies. 20 minutes later we arrived in Rostock.



Kropeliner Strasse in Rostock: full of nice shops, places to eat, and an outdoor market area.

We toured the Marienkirche, a Medieval Church whose precious furnishings include its astronomical clock with its procession of Apostles (1472) and a bronze baptismal font (1290).

 

We thought this altar was very reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean with its nonchalant skeleton posed in the centre:

Nice two-story organ and a mini concert everyday at noon:

One of the things we really loved about our previous visit to Germany was the food. And for just 1-Euro each we got these tasty giant sausages wrapped inside a baguette.  Yummy. 

Onto more sight-seeing... the 14th-century Rostock University:

Town Centre:

Medieval Kropeliner Tor

Grandpa stayed in Rostock to get new eye glasses (his fell overboard near Copenhagen) and our little family headed back to explore the beach at Warnemünde.

We climbed the light house and then played at the beach.

(Emily's 'sand angel')

The girls made friends with a little girl called Jenna.  Jenna only spoke German.  Our girls, of course, only speak English.  Yet they managed to play together for over an hour.  Jenna had a lot to say and we wish we could have understood what she was telling us.  We understood the word 'kindergarten' - it came up quite a bit.  Jenna must be at kindergarten this year...

The weather was beautiful - sunny, but still a bit too cool for all the locals to be topless, so that was nice.  We were told it was the best time of year to be in Warnemünde as it was warm enough to be enjoyable, but not as crowded as it can get during the summer months.

Before returning to our ship, we toured the sand sculptures at the port:

Too Good to Be True?

So our trip to Germany last week went very smoothly.

We had good traffic driving to (and later from) the airport.

We had all the requisite documents (passports, boarding passes, etc.), none of which were stolen, lost or damaged during our holiday.

Our flight left on time and arrived a half hour early (total flight time = 1 hr.)

The four of us got seats together near the front of the plane - miraculous for a cheap, discount European airline.

Memmingen-Allgau airport (located 60 miles west of Munich) is a fabulous little airport - I think it gets 3 flights in and out each day... So it was about a 5 minute queue to get through customs & immigration and our luggage was already out and waiting for us. Nice!

Something unexpected had to happen eventually... and we can thank Hertz Rental Car Company for that part... We had reserved the cheapest thing available and, of course, this being a very small airport, they didn't have the Ford compact car we had booked. Instead, they told us we'd have to take this:A Mercedes E-class... with more luxuries than we even knew existed. Imagine, we had to drive this thing on the autobahn for a whole week.

Of course Matt was all smiles. After a few days cruising at 125 mph (recorded proof is on our Sat-Nav), I wondered how he'd ever readjust to driving the Zafira on British roads again...

We rented a holiday cottage for the week in lieu of staying in a hotel. Not only was it more affordable and spacious, but we enjoyed shopping at the local bakery and eating breakfasts and some dinners in. Our 'home' was conveniently located near Landsberg am Lech (see photos below) - only 25 miles from the airport and was central to all our planned excursions. The farthest we drove in one day was to Salzburg and back - a total of 200 miles - which takes about 20 minutes when driving a Mercedes E-class on the autobahn. Okay, it actually took a little longer. But we sure enjoyed the ride!

A little tour of our cottage:

The city of Landsberg (where we stayed):

Landsberg is a walled city and had plenty of beautiful/interesting architecture. Landsberg's claim to fame? Hitler was imprisoned in the Landsberg jail and wrote Mein Kampf here.


So after all this picture-perfect travel, and a couple hours exploring the town, we decided to eat out and enjoyed some authentic German fayre. It too, was perfect.

German Castles

We've seen a lot of castles in the last year, but none as unique as the two we toured in Germany.

The only way to see the interiors of either castle is by booking a guided tour. So we did just that. First we toured the Hohenschwangau castle, which was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, then we hiked up to his second castle - Neuschwanstein - which he had constructed in later years.

The village below Hohenschwangau:

Then we headed up, up, up the mountain to see Neuschwanstein. We took a bus up halfway, then walked out onto a narrow bridge to get this photo:

The setting for this magnificent palace was almost more beautiful than the castle itself!

From the bridge, it was still about a 20-minute hike up the mountain to the castle entrance. Here is a view of the Hohenschwangau valley from the mid-point of our hike. You can see how far we had come up from the first castle:

Some more of our hike up to Neuschwanstein:

A quick rest for the little girls...

..then finally we made it!

Here's little Emily at the entrance (in pink):

And here we are inside the main gate:

After touring the inside of the castle, which was inexplicably ornate (sorry, we were not allowed to take photos inside), we indulged ourselves with a ride on a nearby Rodelbahn (Alpine slide). According to the kids, this was 'the most funnest thing' we did. Our 'sleds' were awfully reminiscent of a luge sled, except they were conveniently equipped with a hand-brake. We soon discovered it was way more exciting to just let the sleds go full speed! The kids had to ride with an adult so we traded off and went down 3 times each.

Here's a view of the Alpine Slide from the cable car (which we also enjoyed):

You can see it was quite the slide! It took a while to get towed up to the top and then several minutes sliding down. The curves really add speed!

And just in case we hadn't quite had our fill of thrill on these Alpine slopes, we also took turns riding the zip-line a few times.