Greifswald is a small Baltic university town with more weight than its size suggests. The old centre sits on the Ryck, with a market square, tall Brick Gothic churches, Hanseatic gabled houses, and enough students to keep the streets from feeling like a museum.
The town's strongest identity comes from Caspar David Friedrich, born here in 1774. His landscapes turned the ruined Eldena Abbey into one of German Romanticism's great images, and Greifswald now leans into that connection through the Caspar David Friedrich Centre and the Pomeranian State Museum.
It is not a headline city like Lubeck or Stralsund, but it makes a rewarding day between them. Walk the old town, climb or at least circle St Nikolai, then follow the Ryck toward Wieck and Eldena where the city opens into marsh, harbour, and Baltic light.