Today saw a large number of passengers heading into Berlin. Personally I could not see the point in spending 3 hours in a train, have a quick tour around and then another 3 hours in a train to return to the ship!! With the delays we experienced due to damage to the lock in the Kiel Canal the ship's officers made the decision to stay here BUT we miss out on going to Denmark....to say that some of us are disappointed is an understatement. Passengers were not given any option and the consensus amongst people I spoke to is that it should have gone to a vote - Berlin or Copenhagen - we all realise that we couldn't have both but to feel part of the decision making would have sat better with people. OK so rant now over.....so what did we do......

Today we took a guided tour to the city of Rostock which has a long history and this year will celebrate its 800th birthday. Rostock is a city of about 200,000 and is about 11 Kms from the port so we were taken over by bus and then walked through the old town.

As the most important member of the Hanse (Hanseatic League), the city gained great wealth in the past. In WW2 it was of great importance to the Nazis as the city boasted 2 of the largest aircraft factories. From 1949-1989 Rostock was part of the GDR and as such was under socialist rule. Today its income is mainly from cruise ship tourism and the manufacturing of ship parts, which you can see taking place along the waterways. A fun fact we learned is that until 2017 all the Viking river ships were built here!!

Whilst many buildings were destroyed in WW2 there are still some interesting buildings that survived.

We started at Kropeliner Tor which is the 14th century city gate and the remains of the ancient city wall. This was Rostock's western city gate and was first built in 1260. An addition around 1400 made it 54 m (177 ft) high. Today it houses a small museum of Rostock history.

A walk to University Plaza and we saw the magnificent Rostock University which is the oldest university in Germany dating from 1419. We saw the very ornate main building ( Hauptgebäude) and a few associated institutes. Our guide was a student and he was able to show us where he lived near the university (literally over the road) and that he is still often late for class ( this sounds familiar to me....)

Also in the plaza is a fountain which if officially called the "Fountain for the Joy of life" ( Der Brunnen der Lebensfreude ) but referred to locally as the "porn fountain" due to the many copulating couples and animals!!!! The fountain was the work of Jo Jastram and Reinhard Dietrich.

The Rathaus (Town Hall) dating from the 13th century and then transformed in the 18th century with a baroque facade. This could be the oldest town hall in Germany. The only clue to the transformation is the set of seven Gothic turrets capping the roof.

Kropeliner Strasse, in the middle of town, is a lively pedestrian street, lined with shops, restaurants and bakeries. Of course it is made from the obligatory cobble stones!!

St. Mary's (Marian) Church, was built in 1472 and is home to a famous astronomical clock (which we were not given time to see!). It is a typical North German Brick Gothic church, which hasn't changed much since the 14th century. The cross-shaped basilica is still a sight to be seen on Rostock's skyline, and much of its architecture and decoration is original. Despite the widespread destruction visited on Rostock during bombing raids in 1942, the church was only partially damaged and its fires were swiftly extinguished.

The late afternoon was spent on ship where we took the opportunity to partake in a traditional high tea.....like we need any extra food !!!