Shore excursions program for below cruises

Leave the ship and meet your guide to start a short coach trip to Rostock whose centre is dominated by brick front and gabled houses dating from different times. Enjoy a walking tour that will introduce you to this lovely city and its monuments. You will admite St. Mary’s Church, the biggest and most important church in Rostock, and continue to the Kropeliner Gate, the 13^th century City Hall, the University and the Monastery of the Holy Cross. As sightseeing is thirsty work, our next stop will be for a beer tasting session at a typical German brewery to enjoy the taste of traditional Germany. A 30-minute coach drive will take you back to the port.

Spend a day off the ship and take some time to discover Germany’s thrilling capital city, Berlin. After a 3-hour coach transfer from the pier through the attractive German landscape you will reach heart of Berlin, where you will be met by your guide. An enjoyable sightseeing tour then follows that will take you to Charlottenburg Palace, the only building in the city dating back to the time of the Hohenzollern family; a good chance to catch some pictures for your memory book. You will continue through the Western part of the city, driving along the Kurfürdtendamm, the famous shopping mile, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and the KaDeWe, probably Germany’s most famous shopping centre. On the way to East Berlin, we will pass the Victory Column, Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate where you will have free time to stroll around. This area is known as the death-strip which divided West and East Berlin until 1989: on one side stands the governmental center with the German Reichstag, on the other side awits you the “Unter den Linden” Boulevard. You will meet your guide again at the Holocaust Memorial dedicated to the Jewish victims of the Nazi regims and a sightseeing of east Berlin will follow. You will pass Bebelplatz, Gendarmen market and Checkpoint Charlie which is today an iconic marker of political division, and Alexanderplatz with the imposing TV tower. You will stop at the East Side Gallery, a 1.3-km long painted stretch of the former Berlin Wall where you will say goodbye to your guide and return to Warnemunde.

Imagine going through a city and feeling like you were in a fairytale; this is what you will experience joining this tour and walking along the historic city of Schwerin and around its Castle garden. A 1-hour coach drive will take you to Schwerin, the second-largest city of the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Meet your guide and stroll along small historic strets until reaching the mighty Gothic minster and the heart of the town. The buildings, all arranged to one another around the market place, have their own story to tell. Look around and admire the old urban town hall with its beautiful Tudor style façade; get a glimpse of the white “new building” which was built 1717/1785 and is decorated by 14 pillars. Continue your walk and soon the gold turrets of the fairytale castle will appear before your eyes. The Castle of Schwerin was the grand residence of many dukes in former times and lies encircled by gardens on an island in the Schwerin lake. Pacing around the castle garden is like walking inside the fairytale of Cinderella; the garden is built on two levels, one directly at the water level and the upper one on a stone grotto with a beautiful orangery. Walking via the historic bridge you will reach the big castle garden in English style with typical access balconies. Enjoy some free time in town for exploring Schwering at your pace or to have a snack. Return to the port.