Schwerin: swearing and schloss (castle)

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Let me tell you about the swearing first! It happened when we realised that some mongrel (or team of mongrels more likely), skimmed our cba travel money card. We'd only used it once in Lubeck (in an indoor Sparkasse atm machine) on the 3rd July and then when we went to withdraw some money here in Schwerin, we received a message "insufficient funds". When we checked our account online we discovered that someone had gone on a shopping spree at our expense - to the likes of Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Chicken Box - just to name a few. (Maybe they were in the US). These transactions all occurred on the 11th July bar one which happened on the 12th. There were about 12 transactions. It was then we realised that we were the victims of a skimming operation! Nearly all our money was removed from that card. So the second day of our stay in Schwerin was spent on the internet, on the phone to cba Australia and in filling out a 3 page form which we faxed off straight away. We had a few beers and lamented our situation - but we move on 😊

However, our first day (Greg's birthday), was very pleasant. We walked from our hotel (located beside the beautiful Lake Ziegelsee) into the centre of the old town - about 20 minute walk and visited the fairy tale Schwerin Castle. The Castle is located on an island in the Schwerin Lake with lots of domes, turrets and towers - like the one at the beginning of Disneyland 😊. We wandered around the extensive baroque castle gardens, dotted with statues, canals ad bridges. Then we walked to the Castle Orangerie and Grotto where a colony of bats hang out in the winter! The Castle was rebuilt in the 18th century by the Grand Duke Friedrick of Mecklenburg who had it modelled upon grand French palaces. Now the Castle is a museum and also the seat of the state of Mecklenburg parliament.

At the end of World War II, Schwerin was taken by US troops and then British and then turned over to Soviet troops. It was part of the GDR until 1990 when it was declared the free state of Mecklenburg. There are still a few derelict buildings about but these are gradually being tarted up. Our hotel (Speicher) is a lovely hotel but either side of it are buildings being updated or rebuilt and a lake promenade of cobbles is being laid. The ferry stops here at the hotel also. It will be a lovely long lakeside area when it is completed.

A highlight for me here was our visit to the National Museum which has some wonderful Dutch and Flemish collection from the 17th century and European collections from the 18th century and 19th century. A bonus was that there were a few captions in English!

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Photos

Good combination!
Poster near our hotel

Sculpture - The Russian beggarwomen
National Museum

National Museum
Female nude - Louis Corinth - late 19th century

Jan Steen - one of my favourites!
National Museum

Ivory carved "grotesques"
National Museum

Charming street sculpture
Lake Pfaffenteich

One of the ferry stops
Lake Pfaffenteich - love that name!

Arsenal beyond Lake Pfaffenteich
Old Arsenal (built by British). Now the Ministry of the Interior of Mecklenburg West-Pomerania.