Hey guys,

Today we're talking about another place in Rostock - the "Küstenwald", Coastal Forest.

The Küstenwald is not in the centre of Rostock because, as the name suggests, it is on the coast. The coast can be found in Warnemünde.

Our route along the coastal forest

We first took the train from Rostock's main station to Warnemünde. That takes about half an hour. From there we walked along the coast. First we walked along the Warnemünde beach. Then comes Diedrichshagen beach with the Stoltera nature reserve. If you then walk further, you get to Elmenhorsstrand and then to the coastal forest. Further on there are the Nienhagen cliffs.

You can see the "walking route" in the picture below. This forest path along the coastal forest is also used a lot by joggers and hikers, especially because you pass nature reserves here. Even though it looks like this according to Google Maps, we didn't walk for almost two hours. From Warnemünde's Teepott with its lighthouse, it took us about an hour, maybe a little more.

Characteristic wind flyers directly on the beach

I really didn't think that nature on the east coast of Rostock could be so great. And barely an hour and a half away from the centre of Rostock. I was particularly impressed by the so-called "wind fledglings": these are trees that have been deformed and shaped by the wind over the years. They usually stand somewhat isolated and apart from the rest of the forest on the coast. They are characteristic of coastal forests. I liked the fact that you could see the individual trees well from the beach and that there were large gaps between them and not all the trees were close together.

The trees looked as if they had been tousled by the wind. In addition, there is the unobstructed view of the Baltic Sea.
We walked along a hiking trail, but there are also several cycle paths. The coastline shows very different pictures of itself over time: you pass coniferous, deciduous and mixed forests. The coastline is constantly changing.

It is only a few steps from the shady edge of the forest to the sea via the beach. The beach is covered with fine sand. The further you get from warnemünde, the rougher and colder the coast becomes. The surf is louder here and it roars. The wind is also stronger here.

The coastal forest we visited should not be confused with the one in the Rostock Heath, on the opposite side of the Warnow, on the side of the Hohe Düne.
This is the Rostock Heath, the largest contiguous coastal forest in Germany. I will do a more detailed post about the Rostock Heath another time.

The sea air is filtered by the trees here and is therefore very pure and low in pollen. It also contains trace elements and minerals from the sea.

A few impressions of our way back along the beach:

The Warnemünde Church

On our way back, we took a little detour into the centre of Warnemünde.
The Warnemünde church caught my eye.
As you can see from the photos, the church is made of bricks and has a neo-Gothic architecture. Warnemünde is a district on the coast that also belongs to the Hanseatic city of Rostock.

It was built from 1866 to 1871. A little bit about the history of the church in Warnemünde (as you know, I'm always interested in the history of such sights because you can usually understand it through the architecture.
The first settlement in Warnemüne was built around 1200. At that time, the first fishermen from Friesland settled at the mouth of the Warnow. The first church - the so-called "fishermen's church" - was also built around this time. This was then destroyed several times during the wars of the 14th and 15th centuries, but was always rebuilt piece by piece.
A striking point is the 19th century: The Fischerkirhce simply became too small for its many guests. The church was torn down in 1874 and another church, today's Warnemünde Church, was built nearby instead. It stands on the so-called Kirchenplatz.

I hope you liked my post, maybe you'll try this route when you're in Rostock! You will also pass great sights like the Teepott and the Warnemünde lighthouse. How did you like it that I divided the post into two parts, one about the coastal forest and the other about the Warnemünde church? Feel free to write your feedback in the comments. See you next time!