Stralsund sits on a strip of land between the Baltic and a chain of shallow lagoons, facing the island of Rügen across a narrow sound, and its old town is one of the finest assemblies of brick Gothic in Europe. UNESCO listed it in 2002 together with Wismar, and the reason is plain as soon as you walk onto the Old Market: the great town hall with its ornate, almost theatrical gabled facade, and across the square the enormous church of St Nicholas, built when the town was a rich member of the Hanseatic League and wanted everyone to know it.
The city is surrounded on three sides by water and was long a fortress. In 1628 Wallenstein, the imperial general, besieged it in the Thirty Years' War and failed to take it, helped by Swedish reinforcements, and Stralsund remained Swedish until the early nineteenth century. Sail-training ship Gorch Fock, a famous German vessel, lies in the harbour as a museum, and the Ozeaneum, a modern aquarium, has a bold, white seaside shape that shows how the city has changed.
Riding into the old town is a matter of care, because the streets are cobbled, narrow and full of pedestrians, and parking is limited. Leave the bike somewhere sensible and walk. The ride to get here is a different matter, with the road from Rostock running along the coast through flat, open farmland with wide skies, and the bridge across to Rügen visible in the distance. The wind off the Baltic can be strong, so expect to lean into it.
Fuel is no problem in a city of fifty-nine thousand, where stations and supermarkets are plentiful. For lunch, try a fish roll from a harbour stall, which is the local fast food and tastes better in the wind. If you are riding on towards the Darß, make sure you fill up first, since the peninsula has fewer options. Come in the evening, when the brick glows red in the low sun and the day-trippers have gone home.