CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
460 km from Altenberg to Altenberg, about 7 h 29 of riding. The stops in between: Dresden Elbe Valley, Marienberg Mining Town, Mědník Hill Mining Landscape and Rother Berg Mining Landscape. It crosses from Germany into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 42 km this is Saxon Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Dresden Elbe Valley.
Dresden's Elbe valley once held a World Heritage listing and then lost it. Inscribed in 2004 for its blend of Baroque city, river meadows, palaces and vineyards, it was removed from the list in 2009 after the city built the Waldschlösschen bridge across the meadows, a decision that sparked fierce debate. The landscape itself, however, remains beautiful: the river curves through wide green meadows, with the domes and spires of the old town on one side and the villas and vineyards of the Loschwitz slopes on the other.
Read the complete Dresden Elbe Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dresden Elbe Valley comes up 49 km in. Next is Marienberg Mining Town.
In 1521 Duke Heinrich of Saxony founded a new town in the Ore Mountains to house miners drawn by recent silver strikes, and he had it laid out on a regular grid around a huge square market place, following Renaissance ideas of the ideal city. Marienberg is the result, and its plan is still clearly visible, with straight streets, the town church, the Zschopau gate and a stretch of town wall. The town is part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, the cross-border World Heritage Site inscribed in 2019, which recognises eight hundred years of mining in these mountains.
Read the complete Marienberg Mining Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
98 km in you reach Marienberg Mining Town. Next is Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
Mědník is a small, steep hill on the Czech side of the Ore Mountains, or Krušné hory, the range that forms the border between Bohemia and Saxony. It rises above the village of Měděnec, whose name, like the hill's, comes from the Czech word for copper. For centuries, miners tunnelled into the hill for copper and iron ore, and the hill is now part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, inscribed by UNESCO in 2019 as a cross-border site.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is Rother Berg Mining Landscape.
Schwarzenberg, in the western Erzgebirge, is a town of steep streets, slate roofs and a castle and church perched on a rock above the Schwarzwasser river, and the hills around it are riddled with old mine workings. The Rother Berg, the red mountain, takes its name from the iron ore that colours its soil, and it is one of the components of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, the cross-border UNESCO site listed in 2019. For eight centuries, miners in these mountains dug for silver, tin, iron, cobalt and later uranium, and their work shaped not only the landscape but the culture of the whole region.
Read the complete Rother Berg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rother Berg Mining Landscape sits at 196 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape comes up 244 km in. Next is back through Marienberg Mining Town.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Marienberg Mining Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
293 km in you reach back through Marienberg Mining Town. Next is back through Dresden Elbe Valley.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dresden Elbe Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dresden Elbe Valley, late in the day. Next is Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 460 km.
Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape → Dresden Elbe Valley is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dresden Elbe Valley → Marienberg Mining Town is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Marienberg Mining Town → Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Rother Berg Mining Landscape is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rother Berg Mining Landscape → back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → back through Marienberg Mining Town is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Marienberg Mining Town → back through Dresden Elbe Valley is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Dresden Elbe Valley → Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.