Schneeberg is a mining town high in the Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains, which divide Saxony from Bohemia, and its history is written in silver, cobalt and uranium. A silver rush in the late fifteenth century made the town rich, and the church of St. Wolfgang, a huge Gothic hall church with a Cranach altarpiece, was the proud result. Later the miners found cobalt, which was used to colour glass and porcelain a deep blue, and Saxony became the world's main supplier of that pigment. In the twentieth century came the Wismut company, a Soviet-German enterprise that mined uranium on a massive scale in the nearby valleys, leaving scars and also the radon spa at Bad Schlema. UNESCO listed the Erzgebirge mining region, including Schneeberg, in 2019.
The riding is a reason of its own. The Ore Mountains give you rolling uplands, spruce forest and open farmland on plateaus around 600 metres, with long, well-surfaced roads and many small villages. Between Schneeberg and the Czech border there are plenty of gentle bends, and over the ridge, at Boží Dar and Abertamy on the Czech side, mining history continues into the next country. The B169 and B93 carry heavier traffic, but the lanes in between are quiet. Snow can linger into April, and fog is frequent.
Schneeberg is a town of some sixteen thousand, so fuel, food and cafes are available, with Zschorlau and Bad Schlema close. Look for the old Bergmann habit in the town. Miners' parades with uniforms and lamps are still part of local festivals, and the Christmas season here is full of wooden candle arches, pyramids and nutcrackers, since woodcarving was how miners earned money when the mines failed. There is also a surprising amount of baroque architecture, since the town burned in 1719 and was rebuilt.
Allow an hour for the church and square, and then ride out to one of the old mine sites in the woods. Heaps of waste rock, stone-lined adits, and small ponds mark the old workings. Autumn, when the spruce is dark and the birches bright, makes a good time. Bring a jacket, because even summer evenings turn cool.