The Pöhlberg is a basalt cone that stands up from the high Ore Mountains like a bump on a bedspread, and Annaberg-Buchholz lies at its feet. Both belong to the Erzgebirge mining region, which UNESCO listed in 2019 after eight centuries of digging for silver, tin, cobalt and later uranium. Annaberg was founded in the 1490s after a silver strike, and for a few decades it was among the richest places in Saxony. The money is still visible in the town's great late-Gothic hall church, St Anne's, whose tall, ribbed interior feels more like a cathedral than a parish church, and whose altar carvings were paid for by miners and mine owners hoping for luck underground.
Annaberg is also where the mathematician Adam Ries lived and worked, and Germans still say "nach Adam Riese" when something adds up properly. The craft traditions of the region are equally well known: carved nutcrackers, smoking men, candle arches called Schwibbögen, and wooden pyramids that turn with the heat of candles. At Advent the whole range goes into a trance of lights. A ride in December can be magical or miserable depending on ice, so choose with care, and in any case the main season for riding is late spring to early autumn.
The mountain itself is a modest climb, around eight hundred metres, and from the top there is a wide view over the plateau and across the border to the Czech side. The roads that wind through the Erzgebirge are a good mix of gentle climbs and open ridges, with villages strung along them in long lines, each house a little different from its neighbour. Expect patchy tarmac after winter, plenty of tractors and a few steep descents that want a firm hand on the front brake.
Annaberg-Buchholz, under three kilometres away, has petrol, supermarkets, good bakeries and a number of cafés on the market square, and Mildenau and Königswalde offer smaller stops. Weather in the mountains turns quickly: even in summer, a cold front can bring fog and rain that remove the view entirely. If it does, drop down to the town and spend an hour in the church, and let the mine owners' ambitions keep you company until the sky clears.