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| Harbor Entrance Light - Warnemunde', Germany Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
AS I have ranted about before, one of my pet peeves is what I consider the cruise lines' disingenuous naming and advertising of their cruise itineraries. At the same time, I am not sure how I would do it any differently. In some cases, I guess it just has to be that way. For example, in the Mediterranean, Rome, Italy has to be one of the major destinations. And many, many cruises put Rome on their itineraries. But Rome is really not a seaport. The cruise port for Rome is Civitavecchia. But it is only 20 miles away (as the crow flies). So, I don't find it to be too misleading, when they say the port is "Civitavecchia (for Rome)." I also see Rome being the point of embarkation or termination probably more often than just a "day stop." That makes more sense to me.
To me it feels very disingenuous when they say "Warnemunde (for Berlin)"
LIKE ROME is to Italy, it seems like Berlin in Germany is also a major destination. but the distance from Warnemunde to Berlin, on the other hand, is closer to 130 miles. To me it feels very disingenuous when they say "Warnemunde (for Berlin)." Neither Rome nor Berlin, in my opinion, are cities which can be really seen on a "day trip." We have been to Rome 3 times. We were able to see a little of it the first two times. The most recent time, we spent 3 days there prior to embarking in Civitavecchia. It is really the first time I felt that we really "saw" the city. But at least you can reach Rome from the closest port in about an hour. We estimated that a train ride into Berlin was probably around 3 hours. Each way! That carves a huge chunk of time out of a day trip.
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| Warnemunde Harbor Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
I DO think part of cruising is discovering new places; places you may not have considered visiting and that may not be on the popular tourist radar. But I also think it is a bit contrived for the cruise line to "tease" with a major destination that is not anywhere close to the port. Warnemunde is a prime example of this. But seriously, if we are going to see Berlin, we are going to travel there by air or train and stay there - at least one overnight.
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| Warnemunde, Germany Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
TO BE fair to Warnemunde, it really is a nice little beach town, and we had a delightful walk around on shore. I was also able to make some nice pictures.
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| Warnemunde Lighthouse - from Celebrity Apex deck Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
ONE OF Warnemunde's central features is its nearly 102 feet tall, classic, working lighthouse which can be seen from most parts of the town. The lighthouse marks the entrance to the Warnow River, which continues south as a wide estuary to the city of Rostock, before it narrows. Built right at the turn of the century (1898), the structure features glazed "white" tiles, with some bands of green ("white" may well be in the "eye of the beholder," here). The light replaced the old, original range light. A significant part of the rationale for the new light was the ferry lines (owned at that time by the Mecklenberg Railways) that ran between Denmark and Rostock. There is a substantial rail terminal in Warnemunde, as well as its generous ferry terminal.
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| Warnemunde, Germany Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
AS I have stated frequently here, one of the best platforms for landscape photography which includes structures is from the upper deck of a cruise ship. I made most of my Warnemunde images from our Apex upper deck, during the nice morning light, and again, later in the afternoon.
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| Warnemunde, Germany Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
ACTUALLY PART of the larger city of nearby Rostock, Warnemunde is essentially a summer beach resort which is popular with residents of Rostock; but also popular with beachgoers as far away as Berlin. The town center area is primarily designed with that in mind, with many pubs, restaurants and shops lining the small, secondary canal which parallels the Warnow River along the Warnemunde riverfront.
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| Shops and green space along the canal in Warnemunde Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
REACHABLE BY rail, and by both public and private watercraft, the number of private sailing vessels along the canal impressed us.
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| Private sailboats along the Warnemunde Canal Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
AS CAN be seen from the images above showing the beachfront in their backgrounds, and the promenade image below, Warnemunde is a beach and tourist destination at its core.
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| The Strand - Warnemunde, Germany Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
WE WALKED the short few blocks along the canal and shops, and then out the beach promenade, which - together with the beach - is known as The Warnemunde Strand, for a short distance, getting the feel of the place. It was early in the season and on a weekday, and there were really very few people on the beach. But you could easily picture a beach full of hundreds of people.
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| Warnemunde, Germany Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
RETURNING TO the ship, we walked around the base of the lighthouse (right in the center of the beginning of the promenade). Although we didn't make the climb, there is a public observation deck near the top which is said to give panoramic views of the area. I was content with my images from the ship's deck.
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| Ferry crossing the Warnow at Warnemunde Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
BACK ABOARD, I made a few more photos. One of the things that I would see often repeated as we cruised the waterways inland of the Baltic appeared commonplace: the crossing ferries. The one right in Warnemunde appears to be the only way to cross the river until reaching the roadway some 3 miles south of the port. After that, there are no bridges (and only a few ferry crossings) until the river narrows southeast of Rostock. It was interesting to see cars, bicycles and pedestrians all boarding the ferry, which crossed the less than 1/4 - mile back and forth at frequent intervals.
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| Red. Right. Returning? - Wrong 😀 Warnemunde, Germany Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
I HAVE said here before that I learn something new every cruise. I grew up around small boats, mainly in the inland lakes of the U.S. (great lakes and smaller lakes). Over the years, I have had the good fortune to know people who have boats and are generous with their invitations. Before I retired, back in Michigan, I did some small pleasure craft cruising. One of the universals of boating worldwide are the red and green buoys marking navigable channels. One of the little ditties we learned in the U.S. to determine which side of the buoy to pass on is: "red, right, returning." If you are going out, those reds are on your port and the greens to starboard. Returning to port, they are reversed. Being a typical (read, parochial) American, I of course, assumed everyone did it that way. 😕 Nope. There are actually two different systems with the colors the reverse of each other, depending on the region of the world you are sailing in. Germany and the Baltic? Not the same region as North America. Which probably explains why the ship coming into port at Warnemunde has red on its port side and green to the starboard. 😑
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| Celebrity Apex docked at Warnemunde, Germany Copyright Andy Richards 2022 - All Rights Reserved |
WHILE CERTAINLY not the highlight of our Baltic Cruise, we did enjoy Warnemunde. We had no planned itinerary (purposely), and no high expectations. We had a relaxing few hours wandering the port, and looked forward to the next few ports, which we did have high expectations of.
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