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.
From Altstadt Nord it runs 212 km to Altstadt Nord; allow about 2 h 55 of riding. The stops in between: Dormagen, Krefeld-Gellep, Alpen-Drüpt and back through Krefeld-Gellep. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 25 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Six hundred and thirty-two years. That is how long it took to finish Cologne Cathedral, from the laying of the foundation stone in 1248 to the completion of the spires in 1880, and when you stand at its foot by the main station it feels as though the building is still growing. The twin towers climb to around 157 metres, black with soot and weather, and for a few years after completion they made it the tallest building in the world.
Read the complete Cologne Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cologne Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Dormagen.
Dormagen is not the sort of place that ends up on postcards, and it does not try to be. It is a working town of some sixty thousand on the left bank of the Rhine between Cologne and Düsseldorf, dominated on its northern side by a huge chemical park whose pipes and stacks glow at night. Yet the name itself comes from Roman times: Durnomagus was a fort on the Lower German Limes, the Rhine frontier that UNESCO listed in 2021, and a cavalry unit was stationed here to patrol the river and the road along it.
Read the complete Dormagen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dormagen comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Krefeld-Gellep.
Most people pass Krefeld-Gellep without a second thought, because the view is dominated by the harbour of Uerdingen, chemical works and Rhine barges. Yet this is one of the most important Roman and early medieval sites on the Lower Rhine. The Roman fort here was called Gelduba, and it belongs to the Lower German Limes, the frontier along the river that UNESCO recognised in 2021. Tacitus mentions Gelduba in his account of the Batavian revolt of 69 and 70 AD, when legions and rebels fought around the camp, and archaeologists have found traces of that violence in the ground.
Read the complete Krefeld-Gellep write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Krefeld-Gellep. Next is Alpen-Drüpt.
On the flat farmland of the Lower Rhine, between Alpen and Rheinberg, there is little to catch the eye: fields of maize and potatoes, poplars along ditches, brick farmhouses and the occasional windmill. Yet this was once the edge of the Roman world. The Rhine formed the frontier of the empire, and along its banks the Romans built legionary fortresses, forts, watchtowers and temporary camps. Alpen-Drüpt is one of the sites included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021; like many on the list, it survives mainly below ground, known from aerial photographs and excavations rather than standing ruins.
Read the complete Alpen-Drüpt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Alpen-Drüpt, about halfway. Next is back through Krefeld-Gellep.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Krefeld-Gellep write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Krefeld-Gellep sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Dormagen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dormagen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dormagen comes up about 190 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cologne Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cologne Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cologne Cathedral closes the day.
Cologne Cathedral → Dormagen is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dormagen → Krefeld-Gellep is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Krefeld-Gellep → Alpen-Drüpt is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Alpen-Drüpt → back through Krefeld-Gellep is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Krefeld-Gellep → back through Dormagen is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dormagen → Cologne Cathedral is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.