Warnemunde, German Seaside Resort Town

I’m writing about Warnemunde mainly because it was so difficult for me to find information on the town when we made a recent cruise stop there.  It’s on the eastern side of the German coast, and the cruise line billed it as a “gateway to Berlin”.  Hmmm…. Some gateway as you have to take a 3 hour high speed train to get into Berlin, and then 3 hours back..  I have this aversion to getting off the boat to rush a long ways a way to see a big city.   

Oh, and that excursion was priced at $300 a person for that “honor” of spending 6 hours on a train to spend 5-6 hours in the city.  I prefer to relax and take it easy, so we elected to stay "local" at the port and the cruise ship.

We slept in and had a leisurely breakfast on board within eye shot of the cute small town that was Warnemunde.  A cute canal full of boats, and what appeared to be a local fair from our dining vantage point.  We disembarked easily without any crowds and strolled for the town along the quay. A quick tunnel underpass beneath the railway tracks and we were on a bridge into the town.   

What had appeared to be a fair, but on closer inspection was a normal summer marketplace at this seaside resort town. Here's a photo of the promenade of shops and stalls.

We appeared to be one of the few cruise passengers that made this choice for our days, and most people we saw appeared to be only Germans on holiday with very little English spoken around us.  We strolled along the boardwalk, filled with arts and crafts, candies, fish restaurants, beer stalls and more.

Here's a little photo of a fish smoker near the fishmonger stall. 

It was the Peppered Mackerel that caught my attention.

 

Darling stall where you could buy fancy gingerbread hearts with cute phrases on them. 

I am assuming they are cute phrases, because honestly, my German isn't that good besides "mein leibchen"

Here's quite the portable set up for a beer stall.  Now how exciting is that???

We walked along enjoying the sights of the shops, the boats and the people watching was fantastic too.  We saw traditional German costumes on some older people and some crazy fashions on the younger generation. The boardwalk ends  at a small lighthouse and a beautiful white beaches.  The boardwalk continues to the west, to a larger lighthouse and more shops.

Here's a shot of the Brick lighthouse. For two euros, you can march up the 400 steps to the top.  Notice there are no shots from there on my blog...

 

We walked back on the regular shopping side of the promenade and visited the local shops and eyed the outdoor restaurants that overlooked the canals.

What?   

Time to stop for a beer and a sit down? 

Don’t mind if I do. 

We grabbed a “curry wurst” from a food stall and sat and enjoyed the beers, the curry wurst and the peppered mackerel. A different sort of picnic for sure, but very enjoyable.

As to the “curry wurst” it’s a German favorite with origins from either Frankfurt or Hamburg (as they argue it out)  after the war when food was scarce. It’s said to be invented from leftover supplies of Heinz ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and curry powder.  As ugly as it appears, we found it to be delicious.
I might just have to blog a recipe for that some day in the future...

While peppered mackerel might not be everyone’s favorite item, it was as delicious as I remembered from my sampling of it in Scotland years ago.

It was a very enjoyable and delightful day in Warnemunde.   

Go if you can… bring your swimsuits and some towels if the weather is nice, and do some exploring and sampling of the local favorites whether it be fish, beer, gingerbread or sand & sunshine.

Here's a shot of the cute architecture on the main drag.