After spending the day relaxing and cruising the Kei Canal, we were ready for another adventure on land.  On our quest to see as many castles as possible, we traveled by train to Schwerin Castle.  We planned to return by bus, but the clerk at the train station said we would need to pay the driver in cash and we had none.  So we decided to still get a one way ticket and figure out the schedule when we were done touring the castle.  I believe the tickets were 24 euros for both of us. 

The train ride was about 45 minutes.  We walked from the station to the castle.  (Honestly I think walking places was more difficult for us because everything was cobblestone and it really wore on our feet.) We passed some really beautiful buildings on the way.  

Schwerin Castle is massive.  I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures, but they were working on the church section and there was a lot of scaffolding.  I’m not even sure you could visit it or not. The signs directed us to the side of the castle to enter and see the reconstructed rooms.  We opted to get the audio guide to learn more about the castle.  They were 2 euros extra from admission.  After receiving our guides, we had to climb two stories (or take an elevator).

What I found the most interesting about the rooms was the fact that many things were faked.  It’s not really marble that you see, it might be paper mache.  The gold leaf might be just gold paint.  The ornate stone could be just wood.  I think this is amazing.  It still all looks very impressive.  

My favorite rooms were the round ones.  They were usually designated as sitting rooms.  

Per usual in castles, the floors, ceilings, and walls are extremely ornate.  

This fireplace was built in 1616. 

The blue walls in this ladies’ sitting room really made everything pop.  You barely notice the boring furniture. 

This sewing machine is encased in a paper mache cover.  Doesn’t it look fancy?  

You can see the work on the castle better from the inner courtyard windows.  I’m pretty sure this is part of the church area. 

The library bookshelves were so beautiful, but there were no books. They were burned in the fire, is what our audio guide told us, or were they taken by Nazis?  No one is mentioning that part of history in this guide. 

The throne room was properly impressive.  I didn’t get all the walls, but it was surrounded by gold.  I’m sure it was real in this room. 

The hall of portraits was daunting for all those people who waited there to see the king. The portraits were of all the past rulers in period dress.  Many of the portraits were life sized. 

They had not reconstructed too many rooms of the palace.  I think we maybe saw a quarter of it.  I noticed they used some other spaces for meeting rooms, but there were floors and sections that I have no idea what they contained. 

The gardens were beautiful.  

The back and side views of the castle were almost as impressive as the front. 

We hurried back to the train station to catch the next train to Wismar. After looking at Google maps, we thought they were running differently, but it turns out there was a train every hour. We picked up a pretzel and some drinks for the ride back. 

Wismar was one of the most beautiful towns that we visited on this trip.  I felt like there was a picture to be taken on every corner.  There were a ton of roses next to the doorways of the houses and I stopped to smell many of them. 

There was even a small canal running through the town. 

There were many churches, but they required an entry fee and we didn’t need to see the inside that badly. 

The buildings were so unique.  

There were several stuck in the middle of normal looking buildings and then you could read that it was built in the 1400s.  Apparently much of Wismar was burned during World War II, so it was nice to see some buildings were spared. 

A neat note about Wismar is that it is the setting of the 1922 <Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror>. There are markers like these around the city to denote where the filmmaker shot some of their scenes for the movie. Although the 1922 movie got in trouble for copyright infringement by Bram Stoker’s widow and all the copies were to be destroyed, some still circulated in Europe.  They made a new version in 2024, but it was filmed in Prague. 

We spent some time wandering around the town just taking pictures of buildings that we liked. 

The port area was very busy setting up for a carnival.  They had a ferris wheel, several rides, and booths for food and games under construction.  I’m guessing they would be opening on the weekend.  It was interesting to see that in conjunction with these very old structures. 

That night on the boat was White Night.  You were supposed to dress all in white and they had a HUGE buffet out by the pool area. They set up all kinds of tables outside.  I have never seen such an opulent buffet.  It was amazing. 

After cheering for the boat staff and listening to a couple songs by the entertainment staff, we went back to our room to relax.  We had our balcony door open and could hear some music.  I poked my head out and found this German men’s choir singing.  Apparently they did not have the attention of the rest of the boat yet, but eventually people were listening to them.  They sang a couple of songs in English, like “Yellow Submarine”, but I enjoyed the ones in German so much more.  

Then we noticed these two men with mini cannons setting up.  How exciting!  We not only had a group of singers serenading the ship, but we were going to get a cannon send off!  The only way I can explain how loud those little cannons are is that when they went off, I literally jumped with my feet off the ground and I knew exactly when they were going to go off!  It was that loud.  They fired the cannons three times as we sailed away, so six shots in total.  It was the coolest send off on a cruise ship that I have experienced.