Welcome
Biking Through the North: Discover UNESCO World Heritage Sites from the Wadden Sea to Rügen
Pedal Through Heritage, © picture alliance / Zoonar | Kay Augustin
Total route length: approx. 531 km
Total biking time: approx. 29 hours
Recommended overnight stays: 6
To mark UNESCO World Heritage Day on June 2, 2024, we would like to take you on a virtual bike tour along the North Sea and Baltic Sea in Germany, passing numerous World Heritage Sites along the way. Perhaps the virtual journey will inspire you to take a real bike tour along the beautiful German coast! 😊
The six-day cycling tour starts in the quaint village of Dangast on the Wadden Sea and continues via Bremen (77km) and Hamburg (111km) to Lübeck (68km), then to Timmendorfer Strand (18km) and Wismar (60km). From there, the route continues along the Baltic coast to Rostock (62km), Stralsund (80km) and ends in Sassnitz on the island of Rügen (55km).
And if you would like to find out even more about Germany's 52 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the ARD Mediathek is offering documentaries about many of them (in German).
We suggest you start your bike tour in Dangast, a small, cozy town directly on the Jade Bay on the Wadden Sea. We also suggest not starting directly IN the Wadden Sea like the little trooper in the picture, but something along those lines. 😅 👦
On June 26, the Wadden Sea celebrates its 15th anniversary as a UNESCO World Heritage Site
On 26.06.2009, UNESCO added the German-Dutch Wadden Sea to the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 2011 and 2014, the protection zone was extended along the coast and now stretches as far as Denmark. Its significance for the preservation of biodiversity is of outstanding importance worldwide and played a key role in its inclusion on the list as worthy of protection.
© picture alliance / blickwinkel/C. Stenner | C. Stenner
Wadden Sea:
Home to over 10,000 species, it offers carriage rides, mudflat hikes, and boat trips. The North Sea Cycle Route runs through this area, providing a cyclist-friendly path with spectacular views.
Silence of the Tides (documentary)
© picture alliance / imageBROKER | Fotowerkstatt-ks; picture alliance / Zoonar | Andreas Völkel
Bremen is a major cultural and economic hub in Northern Germany. The city is home to dozens of historical galleries and museums, ranging from historical sculptures to major art museums. The Bremen City Hall and the Bremen Roland are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Bremen is well known through the Brothers Grimm's fairy tale “Town Musicians of Bremen” (Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten), and there is a statue dedicated to it in front of the city hall.
Hamburg, officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin, and the 8th-largest in the European Union, with a population of over 1.9 million. Hamburg is one of Germany's three city-states alongside Berlin and Bremen. The Port of Hamburg is Germany's largest and Europe's third-largest port, following Rotterdam and Antwerp.
Multinational companies in the media, trade, logistics and industrial sectors characterize the cityscape. Hamburg is also an important European science, research and education center with several universities and research institutions. The Speicherstadt and Kontorhausviertel were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2015. Hamburg's rivers and canals are crossed by around 2,500 bridges, making it the city with the highest number of bridges in Europe.
ARD Mediathek: Speicherstadt und Chilehaus
© picture alliance / imageBROKER | Stefan Ziese; picture alliance / Bildagentur-online/McPhoto-Waldk | Bildagentur-online/McPhoto-Waldkirch; picture alliance / imageBROKER | Daniel Schoenen
We continue to Lübeck with its cozy old town and its culinary highlights in hidden and enchanted backyard cafés.
The Holsten Gate is probably the best-known and most important surviving city gate from the late Medival Ages in Germany. It is the city's landmark and was completed in 1478. The late Gothic building is one of the remains of Lübeck's city fortifications.
As the “Queen of the Hanseatic League”, Lübeck is the most culturally significant city in the state of Schleswig-Holstein: the historic old town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.
ARD Mediathek: Lübecks Altstadt
© picture alliance / juniors/wildlife | Arndt, S.E.
Timmendorfer Strand, Germany's most famous beach, shines with its seven kilometers of the finest Baltic Sea beach and shallow, crystal-clear water. The beach is picturesquely embedded in a magical natural setting.
© picture alliance / Zoonar | Andreas Völkel; picture alliance / CHROMORANGE | Christian Ohde; Colourbox; picture alliance/dpa | Jonas Walzberg
Wismar
With its monumental churches, the impressive market square with its carefully restored town houses and the waterworks, Wismar has one of the best-preserved medieval town centers in Germany. With its city-wide brick Gothic buildings and the iconic gabled houses of the patricians, Wismar is a typical representative of the Hanseatic League and, together with the historic old town of Stralsund, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2002.
ARD Mediathek: Stralsund und Wismar
© picture alliance / Zoonar | mije-shots; picture alliance/dpa | Stefan Sauer; Colourbox; Colourbox; picture alliance / Zoonar | Ewald Fr
Continue along the Baltic Sea Coast. Explore tranquil towns, elegant manor houses, and beautiful beaches, all accessible via well-maintained cycling routes.
Left top to right bottom: picture alliance / Zoonar | Andreas Völkel; picture alliance/dpa | Stefan Sauer; picture alliance / CHROMORANGE | Rico Ködder; picture alliance/dpa | Carola Große-Wilde; picture alliance / CHROMORANGE | Christian Ohde;
Rostock is home to the oldest university in the Baltic region and one of the oldest universities in the world, the University of Rostock, founded in 1419.
Warnemünde is the seaside part of Rostock and a major attraction of the city. Locals and tourists alike enjoy the maritime flair of old houses, a large beach, a lighthouse and the old fisherman's port.
© picture alliance / imageBROKER | Fotowerkstatt-ks; picture alliance / CHROMORANGE | Rico Ködder; picture alliance / Fotostand | Fotostand / Voelker
Stralsund was granted city rights in 1234 and is thus the oldest city in Pomerania. It was one of the most prosperous members of the medieval Hanseatic League. Stralsund's old town was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002 alongside Wismar in Mecklenburg because of its outstanding Brick Gothic buildings and importance during the Hanseatic League and Swedish rule. It features many valuable remnants of the Hanseatic time, Brick Gothic, renaissance, baroque, historicist and Jugendstil buildings.
© picture alliance/dpa | Stefan Sauer; picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Stephan Schulz; Colourbox; picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Stefan Sauer; picture alliance / Zoonar | Uwe Kantz; picture alliance; Jochen Eckel | Jochen Eckel; picture alliance / ZB | Matthias Tödt
We continue on to the island of Rügen, Germany's largest and probably most famous island where our tour also ends. The coast is characterized by numerous sandy beaches, lagoons (Bodden) and open bays (Wieke), as well as peninsulas and headlands. In June 2011, UNESCO awarded the status of a World Heritage Site to the Jasmund National Park, famous for its vast stands of beeches and chalk cliffs like King's Chair, the main landmark of Rügen island.
3SAT: Rügen entdecken - Unterwegs auf Deutschlands größter Insel
© Colourbox; picture alliance / dpa-Zentralbild | Stephan Schulz