Why this ride
85 km one way from Wissembourg - plan on about 1 h 41 of riding. On the way it passes Bad Bergzabern, Landau, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse and Deidesheim. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Deutsche Weinstrasse
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 85 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 41
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
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.
Scenic road chapters
Deutsche Weinstrasse
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 8 km this is Deutsche Weinstrasse, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 8 km
- Named road
- Deutsche Weinstrasse
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Schweigen Rechtenbach
The German Wine Road starts at a gateway, and this is the gateway: the Deutsches Weintor, a stone arch built in the 1930s that spans the road at the border between Germany and France. Schweigen-Rechtenbach is the southernmost village in the Palatinate, its vineyards running right up to the frontier, and the French town of Wissembourg, with some nine thousand people, lies less than two kilometres away. The Weinstraße, the first signposted wine route in Germany, was opened in 1935, and its length is about eighty-five kilometres.
Read the complete Schweigen-Rechtenbach write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Schweigen Rechtenbach is where the day begins. Next is Bad Bergzabern.
2. Bad Bergzabern
Bad Bergzabern lies close to the French border, at the point where the German Wine Route runs out of road and the hills of the southern Palatinate fold into the Vosges across the frontier. It is a spa town of about seven and a half thousand people, with a castle that once belonged to the Dukes of Zweibrücken, a Renaissance inn called the Gasthaus zum Engel, with an ornate carved facade dating from the sixteenth century, and a calm, tidy centre built around a market square. The Palatinate Forest, a large area of woodland, begins just behind it.
Read the complete Bad Bergzabern write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bad Bergzabern comes up about 8 km into the recorded legs. Next is Landau.
3. Landau
A carriage took its name from Landau, which tells you something about the town's old self-importance. The Landauer, with its folding two-part roof, is said to have first been built here in the early eighteenth century, around the time the French and the Habsburgs were scrapping over the fortress. Landau was French for long stretches, and the great military engineer Vauban gave it a star-shaped citadel in the 1680s. Most of the walls have gone, but the street plan and some of the gates remain, and the town still feels more ordered than its winegrowing neighbours.
Read the complete Landau write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 25 km into the recorded legs you reach Landau. Next is Neustadt an der Weinstrasse.
4. Neustadt an der Weinstrasse
Here is the one place on the Wine Route where Germany argued about its own future. In May 1832, some thirty thousand people walked up to the ruined Hambach Castle above Neustadt, waving black, red and gold flags and demanding freedom of the press, national unity and constitutional government. The Hambacher Fest was the first great political rally in German history, and the castle is still called the cradle of German democracy. The colours on the flags are the ones on the modern national flag. The castle is a stiff climb above the town and looks out across the whole Rhine plain, which on a clear day stretches to the Odenwald and beyond.
Read the complete Neustadt an der Weinstrasse write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, about halfway. Next is Deidesheim.
5. Deidesheim
Deidesheim is what a wine town looks like when it has been rich for five hundred years and has kept the receipts. The cobbled centre is a short walk around a Gothic church, a Renaissance town hall with an outside staircase, and half-timbered houses painted in warm colours, with a few of the big estates, Bassermann-Jordan, Bürklin-Wolf and others, tucked into old courtyards. These families made Riesling famous well before Germany had a wine law, and their cellars have grown a fine reputation.
Read the complete Deidesheim write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Deidesheim sits at 62 km, about halfway. Next is Bad Durkheim.
6. Bad Durkheim
The Palatinate has a way of making you hungry and thirsty at the same time, and Bad Dürkheim is where the effect is strongest. The town lies at the foot of the Haardt, the eastern edge of the Palatinate Forest, with vineyards climbing the slope behind it and the Rhine plain stretching flat to the east. It is one of the main stops on the German Wine Route, and it takes its wine very seriously, with a sense of humour attached.
Read the complete Bad Dürkheim write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bad Durkheim comes up about 65 km into the recorded legs. Next is Grunstadt.
7. Grunstadt
Grünstadt does not make the postcards, and it does not seem to mind. It is a working wine town of about thirteen thousand at the northern end of the Palatinate Wine Route, with a pedestrian centre, a Saturday market and a few handsome half-timbered houses that survived the wars. The vineyards start right behind the railway, and beyond them the land rolls westward toward the Donnersberg, the highest hill in the Palatinate at just under seven hundred metres, a dome of forest that you can see from half the region.
Read the complete Grunstadt write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 80 km into the recorded legs you reach Grunstadt. Next is Bockenheim.
8. Bockenheim
The northern end of the German Wine Road is Bockenheim, a village of around two thousand people in the Leiningerland, where the vineyards slope gently down towards the Rhine plain. It makes sense that it should be the gate, because here the hills of the Palatinate flatten out, and the long, warm ridge that has carried you north finally gives way to broader country. A small gateway and a modest museum mark the start, and the villagers are proud of both.
Read the complete Bockenheim write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Finish at Bockenheim. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Schweigen Rechtenbach to Bad Bergzabern
Schweigen Rechtenbach → Bad Bergzabern is 8 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bad Bergzabern to Landau
Bad Bergzabern → Landau is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Landau to Neustadt an der Weinstrasse
Landau → Neustadt an der Weinstrasse is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Neustadt an der Weinstrasse to Deidesheim
Neustadt an der Weinstrasse → Deidesheim is 8 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Deidesheim to Bad Durkheim
Deidesheim → Bad Durkheim is 10 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bad Durkheim to Grunstadt
Bad Durkheim → Grunstadt is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grunstadt to Bockenheim
Grunstadt → Bockenheim is 6 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.