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.
From Dresden it runs 281 km to Dresden; allow about 5 h 20 of riding. The stops in between: Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines, Lauenstein Administrative Centre, Freiberg Mining Landscape and Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 20 km this is Saxon Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Dresden sits in a wide, gentle bend of the Elbe, with the hills of Saxon Switzerland to the south-east and the vineyards of the Elbe valley to the north-west. For two centuries it was the showpiece of the Saxon electors, above all Augustus the Strong, who turned it into a Baroque capital of palaces, galleries and festivals, so that the city was known as Florence on the Elbe. The Zwinger, the Semper Opera and the Frauenkirche were its crown, and the skyline painted by Canaletto in the eighteenth century was among the most celebrated in Europe.
Read the complete Dresden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dresden is where the day begins. Next is Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines.
In 2008, when parts of the old town of Dippoldiswalde began to subside, engineers investigating the problem found something nobody expected: a network of medieval silver mines running beneath the streets, dating back to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The tunnels contained remarkably well preserved wooden ladders, tools and even shoes, offering an unparalleled glimpse of mining at the start of the Ore Mountains' silver boom. These finds are part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region listed by UNESCO in 2019.
Read the complete Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lauenstein Administrative Centre.
Lauenstein stands on a rock above the Müglitz valley in the eastern Erzgebirge, where the mountains tilt down toward Saxony and the Czech border is only a few kilometres off. The castle, a medieval stronghold that grew into a Renaissance residence, was long the seat of the Bünau family, a powerful Saxon dynasty, and its administrative centre controlled the surrounding district, with its farms, forests and mines. The little town gathered at its feet, with narrow lanes and old houses. Today the castle is a museum, with a dramatic position above the valley.
Read the complete Lauenstein Administrative Centre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 43 km into the recorded legs you reach Lauenstein Administrative Centre. Next is Freiberg Mining Landscape.
Silver was found near Freiberg in 1168, and within a few decades the town had become one of the richest in Saxony. For eight centuries, miners dug ever deeper into the hills, and the wealth they brought up paid for churches, palaces and the splendours of Dresden. Freiberg's Bergakademie, founded in 1765, is the oldest mining university in the world still operating, and its mineral collection is one of the finest anywhere. The town and its mining landscape are part of the Erzgebirge mining region listed by UNESCO, shared between Germany and the Czech Republic.
Read the complete Freiberg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Freiberg Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape.
Altenberg lives with a hole in the ground, and is proud of it. The Pinge, a huge funnel of collapsed workings beside the town, opened up in 1620 when old tin mine tunnels caved in, and later collapses widened it into the crater you can look into today. Tin was the reason for everything here: the town grew around the mines in the fifteenth century, and the Zinnwald workings a few kilometres up the ridge, right on the Czech border, kept digging into modern times. The whole district is part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, a UNESCO listing shared between Saxony and Bohemia.
Read the complete Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape sits at 142 km, about halfway. Next is back through Freiberg Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Freiberg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Freiberg Mining Landscape comes up about 184 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Lauenstein Administrative Centre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lauenstein Administrative Centre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 235 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Lauenstein Administrative Centre. Next is back through Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines, late in the day. Next is Dresden.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dresden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 281 km.
Dresden → Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines → Lauenstein Administrative Centre is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lauenstein Administrative Centre → Freiberg Mining Landscape is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Freiberg Mining Landscape → Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape → back through Freiberg Mining Landscape is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Freiberg Mining Landscape → back through Lauenstein Administrative Centre is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lauenstein Administrative Centre → back through Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines → Dresden is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.