Check in at the 4-star Hotel. Your rental bike (if booked) will be ready for you at the hotel.

Cycle along the right bank of the Elbe to Grünewalde; follow the Elbe Cycle Route through the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve (43,000 ha, UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997) to Ronney. Take the Elbe ferry (approx. €2, payable locally; Monday to Friday) to Barby (castle, town church, and more). Return via Gnadau.

Car-free cycling through the floodplains to Randau (Stone Age village, home to some of Europe’s most important archaeological finds). Continue to Magdeburg. Visit the cathedral. Return.

Cycle to Barby and take the Saale ferry to Groß Rosenburg. Continue via Aken to the Bauhaus city of Dessau (UNESCO World Heritage Site with the city palace and Luisium Palace Park). Return by train from Dessau (one change, approx. hourly service; approx. €15, payable locally). Active option: Visit the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm and continue to Coswig (+24 km); return by train (approx. €18, payable locally).

Follow the Saale Cycle Route via Wespen to medieval Bernburg (castle, Eulenspiegel Tower, Karlsplatz, and more). Return by train (one change, hourly service; approx. €10, payable locally).

Cycle along the right bank of the Elbe to Dornburg (palace), past Lake Gödnitz to the Elbe ferry to Barby and on to the unique confluence of the Saale and Elbe rivers. Continue to the Ring Sanctuary of Pömmelte (often compared to Stonehenge); return.

After breakfast.