Billensbacher Pond and Old Jewish Cemetery Worms

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Billensbacher Pond

   The monks of Maulbronn did not just build a monastery. They built a waterworks. In the twelfth century the Cistercians who settled in this wooded fold of the Stromberg hills dammed the streams, dug channels and created a chain of ponds to supply the monastery with fish, to power mills and to keep the buildings dry. Billensbach Pond, a few hundred metres from the abbey walls, is one of that series of lakes, and a reminder that the beauty of the place is the product of planning.

   Read the complete Billensbacher Pond write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Billensbacher Pond is where the day begins. Next is Baden-Baden.

2. 2. Baden-Baden

   Baden-Baden is so nice they named it twice, as the old joke goes, though the doubling actually comes from distinguishing it from other places called Baden. Romans soaked in its hot springs, and the remains of their baths lie under the old town, but the town's golden age came in the nineteenth century, when European royalty, aristocrats, writers and gamblers flocked here to take the waters, stroll the avenues and lose fortunes at the casino. Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Brahms all spent time here. Baden-Baden is one of the eleven Great Spa Towns of Europe, listed together by UNESCO in 2021.

   Read the complete Baden-Baden write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Baden-Baden comes up about 78 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old Jewish Cemetery Worms.

3. 3. Old Jewish Cemetery Worms

   The Heiliger Sand in Worms is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe, with gravestones going back to the eleventh century. Weathered sandstone slabs lean at angles among the grass and trees, carved with Hebrew inscriptions, some barely legible after nearly a thousand years. Pebbles and small notes lie on many of them, left by visitors as a sign of remembrance, especially on the grave of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, a great scholar of the thirteenth century who died in captivity. Together with the synagogue and ritual bath of Worms and the Jewish sites of Speyer and Mainz, the cemetery forms the ShUM Sites, listed by UNESCO in 2021, recognising the Rhineland communities that shaped Ashkenazi Jewish culture in the Middle Ages.

   Read the complete Old Jewish Cemetery Worms write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 215 km into the recorded legs you reach Old Jewish Cemetery Worms. Next is back through Baden-Baden.

4. 4. back through Baden-Baden

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Baden-Baden write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Baden-Baden, late in the day. Next is Billensbacher Pond.

5. 5. Billensbacher Pond

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Billensbacher Pond write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Billensbacher Pond. That is the ride.