Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: Day 4 of 40 - Warnemunde and Rostock

Saturday, May 21, 2022

Day 4 of 40 - Warnemunde and Rostock - Germany

From our ship - downtown Warnemunde

With only 1200 guests - our ship seems empty -
Food and service are fantastic

Thursday morning we woke up already docked in Germany at Warnemünde. It is a resort and shipbuilding town on the old East German coast of the Baltic Sea. It is a beautiful town with nice beaches and lots of railroads to get all over Europe. Also - ferries take cars to Denmark and Sweden.

This area - the state of Mecklenberg - was one the main bombing routes from London to Berlin - so everything is relatively new. My ancestors are from Germany - and Lulu's are from England. We will also go to Wales this trip - where my Mom's family came from. Griswald is in this state - you recall that name from the European Vacation movie featuring Beverly DeAngelo.

Our ship - the Norwegian Getaway - is super large and modern. It was built in 2013. It was completely refurbished in 2019 - when covid started. It holds 4000 guests but seems ghostly empty with only 1200 people. It is a completely white and old crowd - I have only seen a dozen or so kids. The cruise was $500 per for 9 days - and Lulu bid $125 per person for a balcony deluxe suite with a living room. We have not purchased any other options. The food is top drawer all the way. Steaks every meal - as many as you want. There is always 8 flavors of hard ice cream and 3 flavors of soft. Dinner restaurants are gorgeous with seating for maybe 500 - and maybe 10 tables are occupied. I love it - being surrounded by all my friends.

We boarded the train immediately to Rostock - an 800 year-old town of 200,000 people - about the size of Tallahassee. They have a wonderful downtown - paved streets - but no cars. We had a lunch of Brats and Beer - after all it is Germany. We never expected to see 82 degree weather on this trip - but that is what it was. Lucky we brought shorts.

We are much closer to the North Pole here. In latitude - the equator is 0 degrees. At Tallahassee we are 41 degrees north of the equator. Tamaqua PA is 42 degrees. Rostock Germany is 54 degrees. The Arctic Circle is 66 - and the North Pole is 90. This results in the sunrise at about 4 am and sunset at 10 pm. The Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift makes it a little warmer than you expect.

After 6 miles walking - my calves were sore - we returned to the ship - and took a nap before supper. Next was a supper in the Tropicana Restaurant - followed by a magic show - and then a music show having the Million Dollar Quartet (there were 10 of them) doing Broadway hits.

Internet - during the first day of sailing we sailed along the coasts of Denmark and Sweden - so we had full service with T-Mobile. When we get farther out at sea - we will not have internet - but I can type stories - and upload them once we hit the next port. Saturday we will hit Tallinn - Estonia. It is right next to Russia. Normally the ship would continue on to St Petersburg but not this time. Usually - a visa to go into Russia costs $400 - but if you go on a guided tour with the ship - they waive that visa fee. We will not have that problem this time.

It is hard to explain but we are not suffering jet lag - hardly at all. The worst part of our whole 40 days trip is the overnight flight from American to Europe. It is 8 hours and I can hardly sleep. That usually screws me up for a few days. I increased my vitamin uptake - I have no idea if that helps.

One of my favorite things on the ship are the 16 elevators. Due to so few passengers - they are fast and ready to go. At 11 pm - our elevator took us back to our made up room.