Wednesday, June 10, 2015
We had the wakeup call set for 5am today. The noise from the
deck below woke us before it came. We did not dock on our side, but on the port
side. We came into to the port of Warnemunde and past the cruise terminal
building and turn around and came back to dock. This looks like a nice little
port town. The cruise terminal is right next to the ferry dock and you could
see the train station from the ship as we sailed in. It looked like a new
terminal building but there was nothing in there. They must have had Internet
in there from the number of people sitting around in there when we came back
through it.
We had our long Alla Tour in Berlin today and they did a
great job. It was always going to be a long drive for a short tour but they
managed our time very well. We were only 1 over the maximum group size and not
10 or 12 over. Also today’s price for a 12 hour tour was only $105 vs.
yesterday’s $125 for 5 hours with only 3 guided hours. Copenhagen is crazy! We
have canceled our other Alla Tour for our return visit to Copenhagen. Today’s
tour had to actually be shorten because there was a bridge that needed to be
repaired and couldn’t handle big buses, yet we still hit all our marks on the
tour today. Yesterday we missed a good big chunk of what was on the schedule
with no explanation of why. Anyway, enough complaining about yesterday’s tour
of Copenhagen. It was a long 3-hour bus ride to Berlin. But, I was ready to go
and did not wait in the room for announcements. We were down on deck 5 waiting
for the doors to open when Julie came through and told some people nearby that
she was chatting with that they could go down to deck 4 and leave now if they
wanted. We zipped down and out. I was the first passenger ashore! We crossed the
parking lot as a woman was crossing towards us with an Alla sign. She checked
us off her list and pointed out our bus. We were first on and scored the seats
behind the driver. Perfect! The views were good and the scenery was
interesting. They must do a lot of deer hunting around here. It was a very
agricultural area with a lot of wind farms! Our guide, Stefan, told us to look
for deer, foxes, cranes and storks in the fields we passed. We did see cranes
on the way to Berlin and deer on the way back. So, the drive was fine and had a
comfort stop in each direction. It costs .50 Euros every time you enter a rest
room in Germany. We had a great tour in Berlin for a quick overview. Stefan
gave us concise yet detailed information and answered all questions. He gave us
clear instructions and kept the tour on track and on schedule. He hit all the
marks that were on the published itinerary. I won’t list them here. Clay has
photos. We were very pleased with today’s tour and now we are exhausted.
We got back to the ship and went straight to Terrace for
dinner. It was very busy up there. They were having a special German buffet!
The grill had been turned into a bratwurst buffet. The pasta station was making
cheese spaetzli. Most of the desserts were German themed. It was good. The show
tonight is a vocalist, Kermit Gray. We are skipping it.
The ship must have had everyone aboard early, because we
sailed 15 -20 minutes early. The clocks are moved ahead one hour tonight.
Tomorrow is a much needed sea day. Our next port is Talinn. I have a feeling
that we will move the clocks ahead again tomorrow night! Good night!
