Explore fascinating natural landscapes on the Elbe cycle path
The Elbe is one of the few natural rivers. The stream has its origins in the Czech Krkonoše National Park and its mouth lies in the Wadden Sea National Park. On the way there, the river passes the Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland national park region and the UNESCO-protected Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve.
The Wadden Sea World Heritage Site extends across the German and Dutch parts of the North Sea coast. It is an area of almost 10.000 km² along the coast with a length of around 400 km. The Wadden Sea offers various habitats and therefore a home for around 10.000 species of single-celled organisms, fungi, plants and animals such as worms and mussels, fish, birds and mammals.
Cycle through the UNESCO Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve
On the middle Elbe, a natural river landscape with numerous river floodplains stretches from the Middle Elbe valley to the North German Plain. This unique natural and cultural landscape is summarized by the Elbe River Landscape Biosphere Reserve. The course of the river with its banks and natural flood areas is surrounded by the largest contiguous floodplain forests in Central Europe. The Elbe beaver finds a habitat here, as do the otters and storks in their summer quarters.
Striking table mountains in a unique rocky landscape, narrow gorges, idyllic forests, the Elbe flows in the valley - the landscape of Saxon Switzerland was created in the sea 100 million years ago. Today the Saxon Switzerland National Park is the only one in Saxony and has been protecting a section of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains on the right bank of the Elbe since 1990. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland National Park, which is directly adjacent in the Czech Republic, a cross-border natural landscape according to international criteria is to be developed here in the near future.
