I'm sure everyone knows the history of Peenemunde, and there is a ''Historical Technical Museum” there, which I am sure has a lot of great exhibits about rockets etc. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, I only had time to visit the ships before everything closed.U-461 / K-24 is a Soviet Juliett class SSG. She is independent of the rest of the Peenemunde museums, and you need to buy a separate ticket at a kiosk near the entry gangway - note they only accept cash. She is in the water, and you enter and exit the ship via gangways to the upper deck, and then down through pre-existing hatchways. You get to walk the entire length of the vessel from the forward torpedo compartment to the after one. This sub really is big. Of all the diesel-electric submarines I have been on, this is the first one that I would describe as 'roomy' - a lot of the Officers even had twin cabins. The ship itself is in dire need of a paint job, and the inside is looking pretty tired - this has all the appearances of a museum that is being milked as a cash-cow, and the ship will end up getting scrapped once it deteriorates to the point where it is unsafe or unattractive. After the exit there is another kiosk which is a shop with a good range of souvenirs - I'm not sure why I needed a book in German on Juliett class submarines, but I guess I've got one now!A final comment on U-461 - they have covered the missile launchers with solar panels - I understand that might be one way of making money, but surely there are better places to put solar panels than on historic monuments?Across the basin from U-461 is the Hans Beimler - a former East German Taruntul class corvette - same class as the Hiddensee they used to have at Battleship Cove. She is part of the Historical Technical Museum, but she closes to the public earlier (4pm), and so I only got to view her from the jetty. She looks in pretty good shape given she has been there around 20 years.And finally there was this ship - clearly an ex-warship, I think it is an ex-Swedish missile boat - although now it appears to be someone’s house-boat, and isn't open to the public.Peenemunde looked like an interesting place - there seemed to be a lot of museums/exhibits around, some nice restaurants, and lots of people using it for various forms of recreation - I would have liked to spend more time there. And next time I won't go at the end of the day, because the sun was in a terrible position for trying to get photographs!
