Rad, Land, Fluss

Cycling along the Elbe: a travel narrative of land and people, flora and fauna, history and culture. Lush green marsh meadows, fairy-tale floodplain forests, idyllic villages - and in between, the river that flows and flows: the Elbe. And a woman on a bicycle. Her longing for her homeland and her desire for nature experiences have set Alexandra Schlüter on her journey. For several weeks in the summer, she travels along the Elbe Cycle Path, covering 1,000 kilometers through seven federal states, upstream from the mouth in Cuxhaven to Schmilka at the German-Czech border. Along the way, she traverses river-shaped landscapes such as the gentle Elbe valley meadows and the rugged Elbe sandstone mountains, passes historically significant places like Hamburg, Magdeburg, and Dresden, encounters sea eagles, gray herons, and nesting storks. She also meets the people who live along the Elbe - in Mecklenburg or Prignitz, in Kehdinger Land or Altmark - whose stories are closely intertwined with the river. A summer exploration of the nature, culture, and history of Germany.