Folks:
I am going on the Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas around the Baltic (previous posting) from July 24-April 6 (come join me! there is still space on the ship! We’ll turn it into a photography and computer nerdism cruise.).
We dock in Rostock, Germany from 7:00 am to 9:30 pm on August 3, I believe. This is billed as a chance to see Berlin, but I’ve already been there (my story from 1993) and it is more than a 6-hour round-trip bus ride from Rostock (cruise tourists sign up for 12-hour excursions to Berlin where they spend about 6 hours actually in the city and 6+ hours on the bus).
What is there to do/see that doesn’t involve more than a one-hour drive (ideally less) from the dock?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Stralsund and/or the island of Rügen are worth visiting, per my German friends – looks like they are much closer to Rostock than Berlin (under 1.5 hours).
Train to Berlin takes 2hours.
Can you rent a robinson there? I’ll bet flying in Europe would be epic.
Phil, I haven’t been to Rostock, but promised myself that next time in that nick of the woods, I’ll make a beeline to the once planned Nazi-Gigantomaniac Seebad Prora Resort on the nearby island of Rügen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prora
I’ve seen a full-length documentary about it, and enough shorter “Weekend Shortbreaks” TV items, to know that I won’t be disappointed (in one of them a reporter got to ride a indoor corridor tricycle, one of a swarm of such meant to deliver fresh morning rolls and a copy of KdF (Strength Through Joy) daily newspaper to every single room in the complex at the same time +/- 5 minutes—I’d pay extra money to ride that bike). I think that of all surviving Nazi war architecture, this one must be the least depressing, and downright mind-boggling. Just imagine if they managed to finish it and then lost the war!
http://www.proradok.de/en/startseite-2/
Best of all, there probably are Prora bus tour operators waiting for you in port in Rostock, and the distance Rostock → Rügen is but 101km (62 miles) by road, or 85km by air if that’s your bag.
My wife and I took a 12-day Baltic cruise in 2108 with a stop in historic Rostock. We enjoyed walking around the nearby port of Warermunke as well as Rostock market square and a meal at the famous Block House Restaurant.
Photos at: http://www.nmaffei.com/BalticCruise_Italy/photos2.htm#Rostock
Can’t Europeans take high speed rail anywhere in 5 minutes? German high speed rail was what sold Calif* on borrowing $500 billion for high speed rail.
Visit this museum ship, it’s a bit hard to find; when I’ve seen it, it was docked in the very south of the bay.
95% is on maritime stuff of the 1950s, but Its exhibition also has on display a history of the Arado-Flugzeugwerke aircraft facilities from the 2nd world war. They made many types of aircraft there. After WW2 the engineers were no longer allowed to construct bombers, so they’ve built ships instead- such as the museum ship itself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frieden_%28museum_ship%29
If that is too boring, or August too hot (unlikely), stroll through the nearby IGA park .