The Baltic was kind again to us with a smooth overnight passage as we cruised to Travemunde.
My first views of Travemunde were as Aurora was turning around in the river to reverse onto her berth.
Our Baltic cruise on P&O Aurora would take us to Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Denmark and Norway.
Day 12 was Wednesday 24th May and sailed into Travemunde on Germany’s Baltic shore
Travemunde, Germany
Aurora was docked in the general port area as Travemunde doesn’t have a cruise terminal.
Breakfast with the ship’s guest speaker
We had a leisurely breakfast in the Medina restaurant. We joined a table with the lady whao was the guest speaker on the cruise. She knew our village of Crowthorne after having been a visitor at nearby Broadmoor Hospital.
Her talks this cruise were not about serial killers and the like but about human psychology covering subjects such as procrastination. As a speaker on a cruise she would be given two tickets. On this particular cruise their cabin was on the decks of the shop allocated for crew. Their meals were in the passenger’s restaurant. Part of the responsibility of being ‘below’ was having a safety talk about how to close the water tight doors of the ship in the lower decks.
Guest speaker cabins were allocated according to availability and on some cruises they would be in passenger staterooms rather then in crew quarters. P&O, Cunard etc. provided them with a list of dates of cruises as the cruise lines planned their cruises. This would often be a year in advance of these cruises being marketed to customers. They would then nominate which cruises they would like to be on as speakers.
So far this year they had been on three cruises. One of these was as a replacement speaker at relatively short notice. This could have been as a result of a speaker cancelling (because of illness for example) or perhaps a new speaker had not met with passenger approval and had been ‘retired’.
After breakfast we caught the shuttle bus into Travemunde passing through an area full of containers and other goods on open trailers. This area was part of the port and was the reason why pedestrian access to Travemunde was not possible.
In Travemunde
Walking past the shops and restaurants we headed towards the tall hotel at the side of the beach. This is reputed to be the tallest building along the Baltic.
To our right was the river with moored boats next to the promenade. There were foot ferries that went backwards and forwards to where the sailing boat Passat was moored.
After the shops and assorted restaurants we came to the more usual stalls at a seaside resort selling jewellery and ice cream. There was even a big wheel placed next to an old lighthouse.
At six Euros a go no-one had decided to ride on the big wheel this early in the day. This mobile big wheel had this diagram showing how the family’s big wheels had grown over the years since WWII.
Travemunde’s lighthouse.
At the hotel the promenade turned left and we now had the beach and the sea on our right. Just then a Luftwaffe Tornado screamed low over our heads so suddenly that I didn’t have time to raise my camera.
Along the promenade
Once we were away from the shelter of the buildings the coastal breeze really picked up so much so that out on the beach sand was being blown in mini-sand storms with every gust.
Along this coastal promenade we could see the life guard towers as well as the rows and rows of wicker chairs on the beach.
These chairs were invented here in Travemunde to protect beach users from the wind. At this time of day the bars were across the seats and all the chairs were locked.
Out on the beach I had a closer look at one of the beach chairs.
I had missed the vending machine on the promenade that visitors were supposed to buy tickets to allow them onto the beach. My only excuse would have been that the notices telling visitors to buy tickets were only in German.
Along the promenade we passed houses, hotels and the casino. Below the promenade was a parallel walkway that followed closely the top of the beach and ran just underneath the sea walls.
We walked to the end of the promenade and turned back towards Travemunde stopping on the way for a beer at one of the open air bars along the promenade.
The street vendors by the big wheel were doing their best to interest passers by in their wares.
Once back amongst the shops we paused at a local supermarket but decided against buying anymore wine or chocolate.
Opposite Rose Street we went into the river-side restaurant there as by now it was well past lunch time. We ordered two different types of schnitzel. The main difference was that one came with a fried egg and the other pan fried vegetables.
We lingered over lunch to give ourselves a rest after our morning of walking. The temperature had climbed past 20C and the crowds were now thronging along the streets at the side of the river.