CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Leave the city behind and spend the day on roads with texture. 574 km round from Grünheide - plan on about 8 h 00 of riding. It goes by way of Gerswalde, near Fürstenberg, near Brandenburg an der Havel and Lichterfelde. near Baruth is the high point.
For most of its history, Grünheide was a sleepy village of lakes and pine forests on the south-eastern edge of Berlin. Then Tesla arrived. The enormous electric car factory that opened here in 2022 transformed the place into a symbol of industrial change, controversy over water and forests, and new traffic. Even so, the countryside around it still offers some of the nicest lake landscapes near the capital.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Grünheide write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is Berlin motorcycle escapes return.
The Uckermark, in the far north-east of Brandenburg, is one of the emptiest regions in Germany, and that is precisely its charm: rolling hills, endless fields of grain and rapeseed, beech forests, villages with brick churches and, scattered everywhere, lakes left behind by the glaciers of the last ice age. Gerswalde sits between some of the largest of these lakes, and on a hot day on the way back to Berlin, it is a wonderful place for a swim.
Read the complete Near Gerswalde, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Berlin motorcycle escapes return comes up about 125 km into the recorded legs. Next is Food stop near Fürstenberg.
Three lakes wrap around Fürstenberg/Havel, and the town calls itself a water town with good reason: bridges, boat hire, and the Havel threading between the Röblinsee, the Baalensee and the Schwedtsee. It sits right on the border with Mecklenburg, at the southern edge of the great lake district that runs north towards Neustrelitz and the Müritz, and in summer the waterways are full of houseboats and canoes.
Read the complete Food stop near Fürstenberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Photo stop near Brandenburg an der Havel.
Brandenburg an der Havel gave its name to the whole state, and its cathedral on an island in the Havel was founded in the tenth century, when this was a frontier between Germans and Slavs. The town is a maze of water, with the Havel splitting into channels and lakes, and its old centre is spread across three historic towns, the Old Town, the New Town and the Cathedral Island, linked by bridges. Brick Gothic churches, gates and towers rise above the rooftops.
Read the complete Photo stop near Brandenburg an der Havel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Photo stop near Brandenburg an der Havel, about halfway. Next is Oderbruch Wide Horizon Ride checkpoint 8.
In 1881, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tram line in Lichterfelde, a short track connecting the railway station with the cadet academy. Thirteen years later, Otto Lilienthal, the pioneer of human flight, had an artificial hill built in the same suburb so that he could launch his gliders from it, whatever the wind direction. The mound is still there, now a small park with a memorial. For a quiet residential district in south-western Berlin, Lichterfelde has a surprising place in the history of technology.
Read the complete Lichterfelde write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Oderbruch Wide Horizon Ride checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Scenic stretch near Sperenberg.
South of Berlin, the forests around Sperenberg hide a strange history. In the early 1930s, at the nearby Kummersdorf army testing ground, a young Wernher von Braun began his rocket experiments for the German military, the first step towards the V-2 and, eventually, the Saturn V. After the war, the Soviets built a large air base at Sperenberg, which remained in use until the last Russian troops left in 1994. The old runway and buildings are now abandoned, slowly being reclaimed by forest.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Sperenberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch near Sperenberg comes up about 478 km into the recorded legs. Next is High point near Baruth.
Glassblowers once worked in the forest just outside Baruth. In the eighteenth century, the counts of Solms-Baruth founded a glassworks here, using the local sand and the wood of the surrounding forests, and a village grew up around it. Glashütte, as it is still called, is now a museum village, with workshops where you can watch glass being blown, old workers' houses, a café and craft shops, a charming stop deep among pine trees.
Read the complete High point near Baruth write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Back to Oderbruch.
East of Berlin, the land flattens and the lakes begin, and this start and finish lies near Grünheide and Spreenhagen, in Brandenburg, at the edge of the forested lake country around Erkner and the Müggelsee. The area has a long literary link, since the playwright Gerhart Hauptmann lived in Erkner and set some of his early plays here, and today it is known more for the large Tesla factory in Grünheide, which opened in 2022. Pine forest, sandy tracks and small lakes surround it, and in summer the roads are busy with cyclists and swimmers.
Read the complete Oderbruch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Back to Oderbruch. That is the ride.
Food stop near Fürstenberg → Photo stop near Brandenburg an der Havel rides best with patience. Coastal roads change character with wind and visitors; keep overtakes boring and take the photo from a proper stop.
Photo stop near Brandenburg an der Havel → Lichterfelde can flow quickly, but only if you keep village limits and junction sightlines sacred. Fast connectors are where rides get untidy when fatigue creeps in.
Use Scenic stretch near Sperenberg → High point near Baruth as clean positioning. Keep it tidy, ignore impatient traffic and save the enthusiasm for the good road ahead. The value here is not drama; it is arriving at the riding section with space, fuel and concentration intact.