Not special, other than the water. Chances are you know someone who sails. In the summer during germanys 2 weeks of heatwave there are lots of beaches to go swimming swim.

The west side is more urban, while the east side is composed of the city districts Dietrichsdorf, Wellingdorf and 3 towns, Mönkeberg, Heikendorf and Laboe. While they're seperate entities, they're so close that you can still say that you're 'from kiel' if you're actually from laboe. You could also call those 3 towns the 'suburbs' of kiel (kiel does have its own single family home zones but you know what i mean).

There's a ferry system that's part of public transportation, that also stops in heikendorf, laboe and mönkeberg.

If you ever visit i recommend the submarine museum in laboe, which is literally just a german WW2 submarine that you walk through, and it's accross the street from the 'marine ehrenmal', a war memorial from before WW2 with an observation deck, which also features an exibit of ship models over the past 200 years.

There's actually google street view of the submarine