A few months ago Laura was looking on line and found the Friends of Dave tour in Warnemunde. There was not one bad thing said about the tour in some 200 reviews it got five-star reviews from everyone. We booked the tour. We found that the tour lived up to all its reviews and more. It was the best tour we’ve ever taken.

There were only 16 of us on the tour. We started walking through Warnemunde a small seaside town. Dave actually lived in the town and he seems so know everyone. He told us the history of the town and pointed out various buildings. Our walk took us to a small bus which we boarded for the 45-minute ride to Wismar.

Wismar dates from the 12th century and has maintained it medieval character to the point where it is Unesco certified town . Wismar was built of brick since there was lots of red clay available while stone had to be brought is from a distance. Wismar has three very large brick churches, two of which are still in use and the thirds, which was bombed out during World War II is preserved as a memorial.

Wismar was a major trading center and has an enormous market square in the center of the city. In the 19th century, as Dave put it, Wismar got plastered, so many of the buildings have plastered over the red brick though some have been restored to the original surface.

While walking through Wismar Dave stopped us at a school and told us that it had been named for a girl and her brother who had been executed in 1942 for opposing the Nazis. She said before her execution that if her death had turned even one person against the Nazis, it would have been worthwhile.

Afterward, we had a really good lunch at a microbrewery and restaurant in Wismar. Laura had a fish platter and I had a German goulash. Of course we had including their own beer.

After lunch we got on the bus and went to Schwerin, the site of the ducal castle which is now the home of the parliament of the state of Mecklenberg. The palace set on a small island, has really beautiful gardens.

Later we had pastry and coffee and then spent an hour wandering around the town. On our way back to the bus Dave led us through what had been the Jewish quarter of the city. He said the city had had a significant Jewish population but there were none left. We passed a house in front of which were four small bronze table set in the sidewalk. The four recorded the names and birthdates of the members of the Jewish family that had lived there and the word ‘murdered’. Dave said that there was a group that was placing these monuments all over Europe not only for Jews but for anyone who had been sent to the death camps by the Nazis.

We returned to our bus and took the hour-ride back to our ship.