Why this ride
From Maulbronn it runs 433 km to Maulbronn; allow about 5 h 06 of riding. It goes by way of Baden-Baden, Old Jewish Cemetery Worms and back through Baden-Baden. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Connecting ditch system and Old Jewish Cemetery Worms
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 433 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 06
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Bertha Benz Memorial Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 80 km this is Bertha Benz Memorial Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 80 km
- Named road
- Bertha Benz Memorial Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Connecting ditch system
The monks who founded Maulbronn were Cistercians, and they believed that a monastery should be a self-sufficient world, with its own mill, workshops, fields and, above all, its own water. The abbey, founded in 1147, is today the best-preserved medieval monastery north of the Alps, and a large part of its genius lies in the network of ponds, canals and ditches that the monks dug to collect water from the surrounding hills, drive mills and flush drains. The connecting ditch system is part of that story, a quiet piece of engineering that has lasted for nearly nine hundred years. UNESCO inscribed the monastery complex in 1993.
Read the complete Connecting ditch system write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Connecting ditch system is where the day begins. Next is Baden-Baden.
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 80 km into the recorded legs. Next is Old Jewish Cemetery Worms.
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 217 km into the recorded legs you reach Old Jewish Cemetery Worms. Next is back through Baden-Baden.
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 Connecting ditch system.
5. Connecting ditch system
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Connecting ditch system write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Connecting ditch system. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Connecting ditch system to Baden-Baden
Connecting ditch system → Baden-Baden is 80 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Baden-Baden to Old Jewish Cemetery Worms
Baden-Baden → Old Jewish Cemetery Worms is 137 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Old Jewish Cemetery Worms to back through Baden-Baden
Old Jewish Cemetery Worms → back through Baden-Baden is 136 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Baden-Baden to Connecting ditch system
back through Baden-Baden → Connecting ditch system is 80 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.