Stralsund and Dänholm: Hanseatic Charm on the Baltic Sea, Stralsund, Germany

For our summer holiday this year, my family and I decided to tour Rügen, the largest island in Germany. But when searching for accommodation on the island, we couldn’t find anything within our budgets, so instead, we searched in the mainland city of Stralsund, the gateway to Rügen with not just one but two bridges that connect the city with the island. We found the perfect combination there; nice hotel rooms for my mum, dad and grandmother and a cheap hostel room for my younger brother and I – and they were only a few blocks from each other!

So we used Stralsund as our gateway to Rügen, but upon arrival in the city, we soon discovered that it would be so much more than just a base for our stay. We discovered a magical city that quickly became a favourite of mine.

On our first evening in Stralsund, we took a long stroll past the Kleiner Frankenteich lake that surrounds the city centre, through the atmospheric harbour and to the city centre. The old centre dates back to 1234 when Stralsund was granted city rights as an important member of the medieval Hanseatic League, a commercial and defensive confederation of market towns in northern Europe that dominated commercial activity in the area from the 13th to the 15th century. Along with the old town in the nearby city of Wismar, Stralsund’s old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).