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.
A 333 km round trip from Annaberg-Buchholz - roughly 6 h 16 in the saddle. The stops in between: Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works, Freiberg Mining Landscape, Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape and Dresden Elbe Valley. It follows river valleys.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 47 km this is Saxon Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Silver built Annaberg. In the late fifteenth century rich silver ore was found in the Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains on the border between Saxony and Bohemia, and a town was founded almost overnight in 1496 to house the miners. Within a few decades Annaberg was one of the largest towns in Saxony, and its wealth paid for the St. Annenkirche, one of the most beautiful late Gothic hall churches in Germany, with slender pillars branching into a star-ribbed vault like the trunks of trees.
Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works.
Down in the valley of the Flöha, on the edge of Olbernhau, stands an industrial village that looks almost too neat to be real: slate-roofed workshops, a hammer mill, workers' houses and a stout gatehouse, all enclosed within a wall. This is the Saigerhütte Grünthal, a works that separated silver from copper ore by a technique called liquation, and it is one of the best preserved sites of its kind in Europe. It forms part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, listed by UNESCO in 2019 for both the German and Czech sides of the range.
Read the complete Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Freiberg Mining Landscape. 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, about halfway. 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 sits at 166 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape comes up about 213 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 258 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Freiberg Mining Landscape. Next is back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works, late in the day. Next is Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 333 km.
Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape → Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works → Freiberg Mining Landscape is 37 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 → Dresden Elbe Valley is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dresden Elbe Valley → back through Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 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 Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works → Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.