Waking up in Germany

I’m on a Baltic Sea cruise, taking my brand-new Rick Steves’ Northern European Cruise Ports guidebook on its maiden voyage. The fun thing about cruising is that every morning when you look out your window or step out onto the deck, it’s a different great city. While land travelers often see only the fairy-tale half-timbered centers, cruisers are not shielded from the economic realities of keeping a city fed and powered. Ports are busy industrial machines…and you become part of them. Here’s my first look at Warnemünde, the port on the northern coast of Germany, from where most cruise travelers catch the train into Berlin.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

Comments

4 Replies to “Waking up in Germany”

  1. I like Rick’s business model because he tells it pretty much as it is. Doesn’t make it always appealing but it’s usually a reality show. As for Berlin, watch out for the neo nazis. The news is full of their attempts to drive out refugees, one way or another. Fortunately, Deutschland has far more intelligent than radicals but, just as in the U.S., we all have our cross to bear.

  2. Last year my wife and I stopped at Warnemunde on a Holland America Cruise. Instead of spending 5 hours on a train to have only a few hours in Berlin, we took a short train ride to the very scenic old town of Rostock. There is plenty to see there, including an amazing astronomical clock that has been running continuously since 1472. If you are there at noon you can see the procession of saints. We then walked over to the dock and took a leisurely boat ride back to Warnemunde.

  3. “While land travelers often see only the fairy-tale half-timbered centers, cruisers are not shielded from the economic realities of keeping a city fed and powered.” I kind of doubt that. To get to the Altstadt of any town in Germany, you generally have to pass through the Mittelstand, which is usually the less attractive outer districts, but the backbone of the German economic engine. A traveler would have to be blind not to notice all the small factories and office complexes. You even pass through such an area on the way to the center of Rothenburg odT from the Autobahn.

  4. It’s fun to see your posts as you wander around over there. Please keep it up.

    der Doppelganger

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