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.
150 km from Budeşti to Budeşti, about 3 h 30 of riding. The stops in between: Wooden Churches of Maramureş, Kuziy - Trybushany and back through Wooden Churches of Maramureş. It crosses from Romania into Ukraine - 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 about 21 km this is Romania Maramures Wooden Churches Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Budești is one of the old villages of the Cosău valley in Maramureș, the far northern corner of Romania, where traditional life has survived longer than almost anywhere else in Europe. Its wooden church of St Nicholas, built in the seventeenth century, is a masterpiece of the local carpentry tradition: a dark timber body with a tall, steep shingled roof and a slender spire that seems to pierce the sky. Inside, the walls are covered with painted scenes from the Bible, and among the church's treasures is a coat of chain mail said to have belonged to Pintea the Brave, a legendary outlaw hero of the region. The church is one of eight in the UNESCO listing of the Wooden Churches of Maramureș.
Read the complete Church of Saint Nicholas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Saint Nicholas is where the day begins. Next is Wooden Churches of Maramureş.
Maramureș is a region in the far north of Romania, along the Ukrainian border, where traditions have survived more strongly than almost anywhere else in Europe. Its villages are known for their carved wooden gates, their haystacks and their wooden churches, eight of which form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Bârsana, in the valley of the Iza river, has one of them, a church built in the eighteenth century, with a tall slender spire and a steep shingled roof.
Read the complete Wooden Churches of Maramureş write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wooden Churches of Maramureş comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kuziy - Trybushany.
The river Tisza runs fast and green out of the Ukrainian Carpathians, and for many kilometres it forms the border between Romania and Ukraine. On the Ukrainian bank, the forests of Kuziy and Trybushany are among the primeval beech woods protected in the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve and listed by UNESCO as part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe. From the Romanian side, around Valea Vișeului, you look across the river at steep, wooded slopes where the trees have grown and died without interference for centuries.
Read the complete Kuziy - Trybushany write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Kuziy - Trybushany. Next is back through Wooden Churches of Maramureş.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wooden Churches of Maramureş write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Wooden Churches of Maramureş, late in the day. Next is Church of Saint Nicholas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Saint Nicholas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Church of Saint Nicholas. That is the ride.
Church of Saint Nicholas → Wooden Churches of Maramureş is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wooden Churches of Maramureş → Kuziy - Trybushany is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kuziy - Trybushany → back through Wooden Churches of Maramureş is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wooden Churches of Maramureş → Church of Saint Nicholas is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.