Why this ride
From Altstadt Nord it runs 215 km to Altstadt Nord; allow about 4 h 12 of riding. The stops in between: Dormagen, Monheim-Haus Bürgel, Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 and Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Cologne afternoon · Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 215 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 12
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cologne
Cologne's cathedral is the first thing you notice and the last thing you forget. The twin spires climb a hundred and fifty-seven metres above the Rhine, and the building took more than six hundred years, from 1248 to 1880, to finish, a scale of ambition that still feels slightly absurd. It survived the bombing of the Second World War, which flattened much of the surrounding city, and the sight of the black Gothic stone rising out of postwar rubble in old photographs is one of the great images of the period. Climb the tower if your knees allow; the view is the best in the city.
Read the complete Cologne write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cologne is where the day begins. Next is Dormagen.
2. Dormagen
Dormagen is not the sort of place that ends up on postcards, and it does not try to be. It is a working town of some sixty thousand on the left bank of the Rhine between Cologne and Düsseldorf, dominated on its northern side by a huge chemical park whose pipes and stacks glow at night. Yet the name itself comes from Roman times: Durnomagus was a fort on the Lower German Limes, the Rhine frontier that UNESCO listed in 2021, and a cavalry unit was stationed here to patrol the river and the road along it.
Read the complete Dormagen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dormagen comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monheim-Haus Bürgel.
3. Monheim-Haus Bürgel
Haus Bürgel is a manor farm that sits on top of a Roman fort, quite literally. The walls of a late Roman fortification, built in the fourth century to guard the Rhine frontier, form part of the foundations and outer walls of the medieval and later farm buildings, and the site is part of the Lower German Limes World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2021. Between Monheim and Düsseldorf-Urdenbach, it lies in a broad meadow landscape on the right bank of the Rhine.
Read the complete Monheim-Haus Bürgel write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 37 km into the recorded legs you reach Monheim-Haus Bürgel. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1.
4. Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1
The Kottenforst looks like an ordinary Rhineland woodland of oak, beech and hornbeam, with walkers, joggers and the odd horse rider, but in the second half of the first century and beyond it was a training ground for the Roman army. In clearings of the forest, the legion stationed at Bonna, today's Bonn, built a series of temporary camps as exercises, digging ditches and raising ramparts to practise the rapid construction they would need in the field. The remains of these camps, faint earthworks under the trees, are included in the Lower Germanic Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2021. Am Weissen Stein is one of the northern groups.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1, about halfway. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2.
5. Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2
Bornheim is asparagus country, and if you ride past the Kottenforst in late spring you will see why. The sandy soil on the Rhine terraces just south of Cologne suits the white spears perfectly, and from roughly April to the end of June the farm stands along the roads sell them by the kilo, along with strawberries that follow soon afterwards. This is the Vorgebirge, a low ridge between the Rhine plain and the Eifel foothills, long used for market gardening and orchards, and the Weißer Stein stop sits in the woodland at its edge.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 2 sits at 93 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1.
6. back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 comes up about 120 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Monheim-Haus Bürgel.
7. back through Monheim-Haus Bürgel
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monheim-Haus Bürgel write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 181 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Monheim-Haus Bürgel. Next is back through Dormagen.
8. back through Dormagen
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dormagen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Dormagen, late in the day. Next is Cologne.
9. Cologne
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cologne 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 215 km.
Leg by leg
Cologne to Dormagen
Cologne → Dormagen is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dormagen to Monheim-Haus Bürgel
Dormagen → Monheim-Haus Bürgel is 11 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monheim-Haus Bürgel to Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1
Monheim-Haus Bürgel → Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 to back through Monheim-Haus Bürgel
back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 → back through Monheim-Haus Bürgel is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monheim-Haus Bürgel to back through Dormagen
back through Monheim-Haus Bürgel → back through Dormagen is 10 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dormagen to Cologne
back through Dormagen → Cologne is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.