Stralsund and Greifswald

We got back to Lübeck last night from a 2-day trip to Stralsund and Greifswald, along the Baltic coast. 

Stralsund, founded in 1234, is another former Hanseatic/former Swedish/former East German city, nearly due north of Berlin. It's encircled by three swan-filled lakes and the Strelasund sound, which separates the city from the the giant island of Rügen on the Baltic Sea. 

Stralsund is a small version of Lübeck, and even has the same kind of "show facade" on its old city hall that Lübeck has, which was built to show off the wealth of the city. 

This is the view from a flat overlooking Stralsund's St. Marienkirche. Imagine looking out your living room window and seeing this! I could get used to this life, especially because directly below this flat, on the street level, is a city bakery. . .

. . . and down the street is Angela Merkel's office . . .

. . . and lots of places that look like this:

Beautiful!

Twenty minutes by train from Stralsund is the town of Greifswald, the home of the oldest Swedish university: the University of Greifswald was founded five years before Columbus happened upon the West Indies. 

All the ships arriving in Greifswald have to pass through this little fishing village at the mouth of the river Ryck, and have done this since the 13th century. 

In Greifswald we stayed with Gary's former colleague, Georg and his partner Angie, in their home overlooking a bird sanctuary. At night, hundreds of swans fly in to spend the night on the bay there, to be safe from foxes. The swans spend their days in farmers' fields, just like the Canada geese do in Minnesota. 

Yesterday, we got a tour of the university's new dental school, which was very well designed -- full of light from floor-to-ceiling windows -- and which I forgot to photograph. Along the way we met these fellows, who were about to be installed in a new dental classroom and were eager to get started.