Schwerin; Friday, 27 July, 2012

I arrived in Schwerin and walked to the hotel (it turned out via the long way). Having checked I wandered back to the station through the city centre to get a train up to the small costal harbour, and former Hansiatic, town of Wismar.

I had a bit more time for wandering around than I was anticipating as the train was nearly 30 minutes late, but it eventually arrived.

I had a long wander around the centre of Wismar, which has a lovely old-town almost completely pedestrianized with a little canal running through the heart of it.

After taking in the town I visited the three churches in the town. St Nicolaikirche, which pretty much survived the war intact and is still a fully functioning church. St George of which only the tower now survives, much of the rest of the building having to be pulled down in the early 60’s as it wasn’t safe, and now houses an exhibition on the three churches of the old town.

The final stop was the Marienkirche. It survived the war, but was stripped of all its fittings following the war by a population desperate for shelter and fuel. It remained a shell, slowly rotting away until after unification, at which point a campaign was launched to save it. Building work has now pretty much finished and the church has been restored to the building it was before the war, but is now an arts exhibition space.

After looking around the churches I wandered back to the market place and stopped there for dinner before heading back to the station and the train back to Schwerin and bed.