Arriving back in “Good old Germany” in the evening, I spent the night at the Hamburg airport hotel. On the way to Rostock, I had the opportunity to pay my first visit to Wismar with its impressive Gothic brickwork.
In Rostock, I stayed at a training centre for three days to complete a refresher course that has to be repeated every five years if you work on ships. So the next day, after the morning class, we first went into the water of the harbour basin behind the building to put into practice the swimming formations in heat protection suits that we were supposed to have learned in the theoretical lessons.
The next day was all about the Marine Evacuation System, where we were allowed to jump through a hose several metres deep into a life raft that was inflated in the harbour basin after the morning lesson. The third day shot off with fighting the different fire classes and salvage exercises.
I was able to use the evenings for excursions to Warnemünde and Hohe Düne.
The next day, after my examination to renew my sea service fitness certificate, it was time to return to Hamburg. In the late afternoon, I had some vaccinations given at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine. Otherwise, there was enough time for a stroll along the St. Pauli Landungsbrücken and a dip into the historic St. Pauli Elbtunnel, which is now only open to pedestrians and cyclists.
In the evening, it was time to check into the airport hotel again, as I had to rush into the crowds at the airport at 03:00 the next morning so as not to miss my onward flight at 06:10. But that is another story.
