If you’re ever in Rostock (and you should go, it’s a really nice place), save some time for a day trip at the seaside to Warnemünde. It’s only 15 km away, so if you hop in an S-Bahn you’ll be there in less than 30 minutes.

Warnemünde’s name is a toponym, a ‘what you hear is what you get’. And if you hear “the mouth of the Warnow“, that’s exactly where you’ll get, at the place where river Warnow (Slavic etymology, means raven) flows into the Baltic Sea.

A thousand years ago that used to be a humble fishing village (yes, back when you could eat fish from the Baltic Sea without a care in the world… good times!). But in the early 1300s the nearby city of Rostock, which had just been included in the Hanseatic League and was turning into a big old port with a shipyard, bought the village to make sure the boats’ passage through the river out in the sea would be managed smoothly “in-house“.

Not much actually changed for the fishing village until the world discovered that going to the seaside and relaxing on the beach could be fun. And that only happened later, in the 19th century, when Warnemünde started to develop into a resort.

The best features of this former little village (now Germany’s busiest cruise port) are the old fishing houses on Alexandrinenstrasse, which are now very much sought-for holiday houses, the three lighthouses and the exceptionally wide beach. Let’s check them out!

Warnemünde’s old fishing houses on Alexandrinenstrasse

For convenience, the fishermen and sailors had houses on the Achtereeg, the “back row“, a stone’s throw away from the port. Most definitely not looking as posh as they do today, they were just a row of tiny timbered houses, huddled against each other.

Fun fact, the narrow alley between such houses is called in the area a Tüsche, a “ ‘tween“ (zwischen). Traditionally it was never wider than 1,5 m or just enough for a pregnant cow to pass through.

In one of these fun Am Strom houses the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch lived for a while in 1907. He went there to calm his nerves and left about a year later, irritated by the incessant stream of ‘bourgeois beach-goers’

Warnemünde’s lighthouse

Follow the back rows of colourful fishing huts all the way down to the water and you will reach the landmark silhouette of the Lighthouse and the Teapot. It’s so classic that I bet you saw it and didn’t know it.

*Kinda looks like a teapot from a certain angle, doesn’t it?*

The tower stands there since 1898 and it still works. You can climb up and take in the view, then climb down and take in a snack or a beer at the Teapot.

The Teepott, tea pavilion slash beach restaurant, is a lovely example of late 60s Bauhaus Hyparschale / hyparshell roof, that is a hyperbolic paraboloid, also known as a saddle-roof. Which was the signature shape of the architect, Ulrich Müther, whose creations you can see all over former East Germany.

The Twins on the Moles

Besides the main attraction, the old Lighthouse, there are also two smaller ones, out on the piers. One green on the Westmole, one red on the Ostmole. (Mole as in breakwater, not beauty mark).

*Thing One and Thing Two, one from the 60s, one from the 80s.*

*Every July there’s a regatta in Warnemünde. Any other day, it’s just a feast of all kinds of awesome boats.*

Such as this eye candy, Santa Barbara Anna, a three-masted topsail schooner (link) — *Such as this eye candy,* *Santa Barbara Anna, a three-masted topsail schooner (link*)

Warnemünde’s beach

Another classic landmark of the Baltic Sea German tableau comes also from Warnemünde, and that is the beach basket chair, and it was invented in the late 1800s by local basket-maker Wilhelm Bartelmann, at the request of a lady suffering from arthritis who wished to sit at the beach in a comfortable upright position, sheltered by the wind.

Cue the Strandkorb, a beloved feature of the Baltic seashore. It’s so popular it was featured in one of the best-known photos of the 2007 G8 Summit, as a (not particularly graceful) 9-seater for the “family photo“.