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.
221 km from Altstadt Nord to Altstadt Nord, about 4 h 04 of riding. It goes by way of Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at, Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5, Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee and Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 18 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 Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at.
Clemens August of Bavaria, prince-elector and archbishop of Cologne in the eighteenth century, loved two things above all: hunting with falcons and building in the latest style. At Brühl, just south of Cologne, he created two of the finest rococo buildings in Germany. Augustusburg Palace, his summer residence, has a staircase designed by Balthasar Neumann that is one of the masterpieces of the period, a whirl of marble, stucco and frescoes, and a formal French garden that stretches toward the forest. Falkenlust, a smaller hunting lodge at the end of a long avenue, was built for falconry, with a delightful interior decorated with tiles and lacquerwork. The two castles were listed by UNESCO in 1984.
Read the complete Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at comes up about 17 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5.
Between Bonn and the Eifel lies the Kottenforst, a broad, flat forest of oak, beech and hornbeam on the plateau of the Ville, once a hunting ground of the Electors of Cologne, who laid out long straight rides through the trees for their stag hunts. Hidden in the woods are the faint outlines of Roman camps, earthworks left by soldiers who trained or camped here when Bonn, then called Bonna, was the base of a Roman legion on the Rhine frontier. The site at Domhecken, in the northern part of the forest, is one of the components of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021. Like many such sites, it is subtle, a low bank and ditch among the trees, but it adds a layer of history to a walk or a ride through the forest.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 40 km into the recorded legs you reach Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee.
The Kottenforst is a big, flat, rather mysterious forest on the plateau south-west of Bonn, crossed by long, dead-straight avenues laid out by the Electors of Cologne in the eighteenth century as hunting rides. The Bellerbuschallee is one of them, and walking or riding along it you pass oak and beech, wet hollows and the occasional deer. Under the trees, though, lie traces much older than the Electors: the low ramparts of Roman practice camps, where legionaries from Bonn learned to dig defences quickly. These camps form part of the Lower German Limes World Heritage listing inscribed in 2021.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee, about halfway. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1.
The Kottenforst looks like an ordinary Rhineland woodland of oak, beech and hornbeam, with walkers, joggers and the odd horse rider, but in the second half of the first century and beyond it was a training ground for the Roman army. In clearings of the forest, the legion stationed at Bonna, today's Bonn, built a series of temporary camps as exercises, digging ditches and raising ramparts to practise the rapid construction they would need in the field. The remains of these camps, faint earthworks under the trees, are included in the Lower Germanic Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2021. Am Weissen Stein is one of the northern groups.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 sits at 69 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee comes up about 148 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 182 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5. Next is back through Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at, late in the day. 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.
The route ends here after 221 km.
Cologne Cathedral → Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at → Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5 is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5 → Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee → Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 → back through Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Bellerbuschallee → back through Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 5 → back through Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at → Cologne Cathedral is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.