Warnemünde/Germany

July 30, 2024 Warnemünde

After more than seven months back in Germany. However, a sense of home did not come up.

At 9:00 AM, I began my hike to my selected destination, the Rostock Maritime Museum. After about eighty minutes, I reached the traditional ship Dresden, which houses the museum and is also an exhibit. I spent almost two entertaining hours there.

For the return journey, I wanted to use public transport, which was not so easy. A construction fence blocked my way to the S-Bahn station. I had to detour significantly, bringing me near a bus stop. So I decided to take the bus to the next S-Bahn station.

No sooner had I taken a seat in the waiting shelter than a young man sat down next to me, and we started a conversation. He introduced himself as Florian. When I said I still needed to buy a ticket, he showed me a disability pass and said it entitled him to take an accompanying person.

So Florian and I traveled together on the bus, switched to the S-Bahn, and went to its final stop, which is located right at the Cruise Pier Warnemünde. We said our goodbyes, and I walked towards the pier. It was shortly before 2:00 PM, and I had planned to have lunch on the ship. Then a phone call interrupted me.

The day before, I had notified my Facebook friends Gitta and Erik about my upcoming arrival in Warnemünde, and they both wanted to take the opportunity to meet with me again, which made me very happy.

The call was from Gitta. She informed me that she had just arrived at the parking lot in front of my ship. That ended the lunch plan.

We greeted each other warmly. Afterwards, Gitta tried to take some good photos of the ship, which was not easy as a building partially obscured the 'Serenade'. We chatted until Erik arrived with his wife Andrea. After another warm greeting, we sat down in a shady spot on the terrace of a restaurant and were served drinks and a salad for the ladies. Two hours flew by until my guests had to leave.

After that, I walked along the pier and looked at shops and restaurants until I heard my name. Two ladies were sitting at a table, and the one who called me I recognized by sight. Both were passengers of the 'Serenade'; one had just boarded shortly before and was introduced to me as Joan from England. I was invited to join the two of them. I ordered a beer, and we chatted animatedly until I had to leave to be on time for dinner at my table. I managed to arrive with just five minutes delay.

In the evening, I listened a bit to the string trio.