Leipzig long day · Parks of Wörlitz

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Leipzig

   On Monday evenings in the autumn of 1989, thousands of people gathered at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig after the prayers for peace and walked around the ring road with candles, chanting that they were the people. The East German state could have sent in the tanks, and did not, and within weeks the Berlin Wall had fallen. Leipzig is proud of that, and rightly. The church still stands in its quiet square, with a classical interior of slender palm-like pillars in pastel colours, and a plaque outside records the demonstrations.

   Read the complete Leipzig write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Leipzig is where the day begins. Next is Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz.

2. 2. Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz

   In the late eighteenth century, a small German principality decided to remake its entire landscape as a work of art. Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau, inspired by travels in England and by the ideas of the Enlightenment, created a vast network of parks, gardens, palaces and estates along the Elbe and Mulde rivers, combining beauty, education and agriculture. The result, the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz, is one of the earliest and largest landscape gardens in continental Europe, and it was listed by UNESCO in 2000.

   Read the complete Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz comes up about 77 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Bauhaus.

3. 3. The Bauhaus

   The Bauhaus building in Dessau is a glass box that changed the way the world builds. Walter Gropius designed it in 1925 and 1926 for the school he had moved here from Weimar, and the structure combines workshops, classrooms, a studio block and a theatre in a plan that looks like a pinwheel from above. The famous feature is the glass curtain wall on the workshop wing, which hangs in front of the structure like a transparent skin, one of the first of its kind in the world. Inside, the stairs, the lamps and the lettering carry the look of the movement.

   Read the complete The Bauhaus write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach The Bauhaus. Next is The Masters’ Houses.

4. 4. The Masters’ Houses

   Walter Gropius did not only design a school, he designed the houses for its teachers, and the Masters' Houses in Dessau are among the most elegant homes of the modern movement. Built in 1925 and 1926 on a quiet street at the edge of a pine wood, they form a row of white, flat-roofed, cubic buildings, each one a variation on the same set of simple geometric forms: three semi-detached pairs for the masters and a larger villa for Gropius himself. Their clean lines, large windows and balanced proportions were a statement of what modern living could look like.

   Read the complete The Masters’ Houses write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The Masters’ Houses, about halfway. Next is Parks of Wörlitz.

5. 5. Parks of Wörlitz

   Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau, a ruler of a small German state in the late eighteenth century, came back from travels in England and Italy and decided to turn his whole principality into a garden. The result, the Garden Realm of Dessau-Wörlitz, is now a World Heritage Site, and the parks of Wörlitz are its heart: an English landscape garden laid out around a lake fed by the Elbe, with canals, bridges, temples, a synagogue built as a temple of tolerance, and the palace at Wörlitz, designed by Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff and regarded as one of the first neoclassical buildings in Germany.

   Read the complete Parks of Wörlitz write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Parks of Wörlitz sits at 114 km, about halfway. Next is back through The Masters’ Houses.

6. 6. back through The Masters’ Houses

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The Masters’ Houses write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through The Masters’ Houses comes up about 141 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The Bauhaus.

7. 7. back through The Bauhaus

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The Bauhaus write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 142 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Bauhaus. Next is back through Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz.

8. 8. back through Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz, late in the day. Next is Leipzig.

9. 9. Leipzig

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Leipzig write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 239 km.