Elbe Cycle Route

You can see the "Kugelbake" at the northern peak of Lower Saxony next to "Alten Liebe" (a pier with viewing platform) – the former navigational mark is the symbol of Cuxhaven today and part of the city's coat of arms.

The Elbe flows into the North Sea there, and the North-Baltic Sean channel divides the city into North and South Brunsbüttel. More than 34,000 pass through its locks annually.

Founded in 1617, Glücksstadt is an idyllic city monument today and known thanks to the herring weeks, which take place every June.

Old half-timbered houses, cobblestones, the old Hanseatic harbour, the proximity to the water - attributes which are associated with a Hanseatic town and are found in Stade in exactly the same way. Over ten million fruit trees bloom every spring at the gates of the Hanseatic city of Stade. A day trip to the Lower Saxon town on the Lower Elbe is worthwhile.

About 8,000 ships from all over the world call at Europe's second largest port. From Hamburgs cruise ship terminal to the historic Speicherstadt and the jetties to the modern container port - it smells like freedom and distant countries here.

The southernmost city of Schleswig-Holstein lies on the Elbe, about 40 km from Hamburg, directly on the border to Lower Saxony.

Mecklenburg's most western city lies on the Elbe River in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Elbe-Mecklenburg-Vorpommern River Landscape and also at the state triangle of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein.

The small town of Bleckede lies on both sides of the Elbe in the district of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony.

The historic town of Hitzacker lies on the Elbe in the district of Lüchow-Dannenberg in Wendland. The Archaeological Centre in Hitzacker is an open-air museum dedicated to the Bronze Age. Hitzacker also has a vineyard that rises about 40 metres above the Elbe.

The city of Dömitz lies in the middle of the biosphere reserve on the Elbe in the southwest of Mecklenburg. Frequent flooding due to its proximity to the Elbe River meant that the city was inhabited quite late.

Wittenberge is located in the northwest of Brandenburg, exactly halfway along the Elbe between Hamburg and Berlin. Here the Elblandfestspiele take place annually.