Cities In North Germany

On Friday, June 30 The first stop for our ship, Oceania Marina, was the Baltic port of Warnamunde, in Mecklinberg, a northern section of Germany. We rented a car and four of us drove to lovely Schwerin, site of a great castle of the Dukes of Mecklinberg. A fanciful combination of historical Romanticism and ornate decoration, this huge castle was well worth our drive in this rainy section of the Baltic. After our visit to the castle, we spent time at the town's small but fine art museum, which has a particularly good collection of 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings by such masters as Hals, Fabritius, Rubens, Steen, Brueghel and many others. It also has an amazing, life-size portrait of "Clara," a rhinoceros immortalized by the French artist Oudry in the 18th century. After a delicious lunch at the Cafe Prag, our excellent driver Jim drove to the Hanseatic city of Rostock, which has been restored after it was heavily bombed during WWII. We visited the Romanesque "Petri" church and drove through town before heading back to he ship. - Dan