We had a nice breakfast and then got ready for our bicycling excursion which started at ten. We had moored in Warnemünde at seven and it looked like a cloudy day. From our cabin at the dock we had a nice view of the ship-building area. This was once known as Warnowwerft, an important ship-building area of East Germany.
Our bicycle tour guide Kai was funny and informative. He was born in 1982 in nearby Rostock. This part of Germany was East Germany until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 so Kai had an interesting perspective: early memories of life as an East German, and then the many-year, difficult, process of “westernizing”. Rostock was the largest coastal city and the most important port city in East Germany. Warnemünde translates literally as “Mouth of the Warnow”, and the Warnow river is what makes Rostock a port.
We walked from the cruise dock to the bicycle rental shop via a route Kai devised to show us some of the important landmarks in the small tourist-center part of the town.
Kai gave us a quick lesson in local lingo: this region of Germany uses “moin” as an all-purpose greeting, and says “jo” for ‘yes’ instead of the normal German “ja”. We saw a monument and a lighthouse. The lighthouse is from 1897 while the nearby Teepott building with its interesting Hyparschale roof is one of the few ‘living’ examples of East German architecture.
Once on the bicycles we rode out through a mile or so of the town, and then a few more miles on a forest path above the beach. We turned around at a beach access which offered stairs down to the beach below.
About half way back we stopped at the seaside Hotel Wilhelmshöhe where we sat on their expansive patio and had a cup of tea or coffee and a piece of cake.
Shortly after getting back on the bikes for the remaining couple miles the clouds opened and we got soaked.
We walked around town on our own for a while, then had a nice lunch.
Then we stopped a grocery store with the intent of buying some chocolate to bring home as gifts. It seems the ship’s crew also likes to stock up on chocolate here! Many varieties had been sold out.
We walked over near the jetties at the mouth of the Warnow River where the main tourist beach is.
At dinner the Rostock Warnemünde Brass Band came aboard and played a few sets on the Lido deck, and the meal featured German food and beers.
After dinner we took a short walk to stretch our legs and saw the Ferris wheel is lit up after dark.
Later we went to the main stage onboard for a performance by comedian Nick Page. He has a very low-key approach but is really funny.