We arrived in Rostock, Germany just one day after leaving
Poland since the ports were so close together. The first day, a group of us –
Alex, Mark, Megan, Kylie, Jessica and Katie – headed into the city of Rostock.
The ship actually docked in a seaside port of Warnemunde (love the way that
word is pronounced – use a V instead of the W and proclaim it out loud!). We
hopped on the train and traveled 20 mins into Rostock. The walk in to the city
center was long but it gave us a chance to see the outskirts of town where the
locals lived. We chatted about Katie being vegan on the ship (a very difficult
thing to do with our limited choices) and Kylie’s adventures working in the
field program office (oh the tales of difficulty professors!).
Germany, just slightly smaller than the US state of Montana, definitely has a sordid history but it seemed, while I was there, that people were really aiming to be very progressive. The stores were modern and the salespeople were very friendly. We walked past very inventive signs and weird random artwork on the walls. Our first stop was St. Mary’s church. Light shone through the tall thin windows inside and the floors were inlaid with memorial stones. The classic mosaic windows were in every corner of course but the highlight of this church was the massive organ in the center and an intricate sundial clock in one corner – very different from the churches in Poland and STP. Next, we walked over to St. Peter’s Church, the oldest of the churches in Rostock. It was built in the 14th century and its brick exterior is very gothic in style. The inside, though small, had lovely stain-glass windows depicting the life of Peter; but the main attraction was a series of miniature ships hanging from the tall ceiling – very bizarre.

Our final stop was the 1262AD Cow Gate, or Kuhtor, one of the oldest preserved brick town gates in all of Germany. It’s really quite hard to imagine any piece of architecture remaining in one location for such a long time. We snapped some group pics and headed back to the city center. I mailed some postcards from the tourist office and then we went back to our favorite pastry shop for round two of pastries (I resisted with a lot of difficulty). I don’t think I would have ever known to go to Rostock if it hadn’t been for this Semester at Sea trip so I was grateful for the chance to see some of the outskirts of Germany. More than anything though, this kind of urban hiking through small towns was really fun with new friends because we got the chance to know each other and hear each other’s stories. The town’s stories somehow merge with our modern stories like a giant palimpsest and the layers are the real memory. What a fun day!
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