Very cold here! 12 degrees and windy. I watched the long line of
people walking to the train Holland America had chartered to take the
travellers to Berlin for the day. Something inside reminded me of long lines
all those years ago being forced onto trains ...
I walked to the end of the pier and then through the subway under
the railway lines to the little town – very cute, very German! The first place I
settled was outside the Information Centre (with lots of crew) where there was
a hotspot. It was freezing. Having caught up on the mail and blog, I walked a
little further into the town, had a look at the markets and a few souvenir
shops. Most shops were closed.
Being Sunday, lots of families were out walking with little children in tow; it was nice to hear the lilting German voices. The building closest to the ship was an outlet for all sorts of locally made jams and produce, which was obviously not on my shopping list. There was also a sand sculpture exhibition with some amazing creations.
However, it was freezing and I was not completely protected from the weather. I couldn’t find anything that looked like espresso coffee and certainly not take-away, so in the end, I went back to the ship after about two hours ashore. It was then that I discovered two of my fingers were completely white and it took fifteen minutes in the warmth before they “came back to life”.
Up in the Lido I noticed that the train station was quite busy, so it must be part of the local public transport network. It was very pleasant sitting there with not too many people around (many are ashore or on excursions). So far I’ve finished my first book this trip and am now on to my second: The Help – very difficult to put down!
· so many Europeans smoke, particularly younger women;
· I’m always surprised by the number of wind turbines in and close to cities here.
Being Sunday, lots of families were out walking with little children in tow; it was nice to hear the lilting German voices. The building closest to the ship was an outlet for all sorts of locally made jams and produce, which was obviously not on my shopping list. There was also a sand sculpture exhibition with some amazing creations.
However, it was freezing and I was not completely protected from the weather. I couldn’t find anything that looked like espresso coffee and certainly not take-away, so in the end, I went back to the ship after about two hours ashore. It was then that I discovered two of my fingers were completely white and it took fifteen minutes in the warmth before they “came back to life”.
Up in the Lido I noticed that the train station was quite busy, so it must be part of the local public transport network. It was very pleasant sitting there with not too many people around (many are ashore or on excursions). So far I’ve finished my first book this trip and am now on to my second: The Help – very difficult to put down!
I went downtown
again for another walk at 2.00pm but this time I wore every warm item I have
with me! (not a great deal, as I was expecting summer!) As I had anticipated,
many more of the little shops were open and there were lots more people walking
around, including two cruise liners’ worth of passengers; it was still cold and
windy and we had a few spits of rain as well. Very enjoyable and I bought a
couple of scarves.
Some observations
in general so far:
· so many Europeans smoke, particularly younger women;
· I’m always surprised by the number of wind turbines in and close to cities here.
Tonight we
had a German bierfest on Lido deck: oompah music, German sausages, sauerkraut –
yum!
We sailed at
10.00pm and it wasn’t too long before we started rockin’ and rollin’. I wanted
to go outside and check what the waves looked like but the wind was so strong I
couldn’t open the door to the verandah!
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