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.
323 km from Dippoldiswalde to Dippoldiswalde, about 5 h 40 of riding. It goes by way of Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape, Dresden Elbe Valley, Lauenstein Administrative Centre and Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 47 km this is Saxon Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
In 2008, when parts of the old town of Dippoldiswalde began to subside, engineers investigating the problem found something nobody expected: a network of medieval silver mines running beneath the streets, dating back to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The tunnels contained remarkably well preserved wooden ladders, tools and even shoes, offering an unparalleled glimpse of mining at the start of the Ore Mountains' silver boom. These finds are part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region listed by UNESCO in 2019.
Read the complete Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines is where the day begins. Next is Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape.
Altenberg lives with a hole in the ground, and is proud of it. The Pinge, a huge funnel of collapsed workings beside the town, opened up in 1620 when old tin mine tunnels caved in, and later collapses widened it into the crater you can look into today. Tin was the reason for everything here: the town grew around the mines in the fifteenth century, and the Zinnwald workings a few kilometres up the ridge, right on the Czech border, kept digging into modern times. The whole district is part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, a UNESCO listing shared between Saxony and Bohemia.
Read the complete Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dresden Elbe Valley.
Dresden's Elbe valley once held a World Heritage listing and then lost it. Inscribed in 2004 for its blend of Baroque city, river meadows, palaces and vineyards, it was removed from the list in 2009 after the city built the Waldschlösschen bridge across the meadows, a decision that sparked fierce debate. The landscape itself, however, remains beautiful: the river curves through wide green meadows, with the domes and spires of the old town on one side and the villas and vineyards of the Loschwitz slopes on the other.
Read the complete Dresden Elbe Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Dresden Elbe Valley. Next is Lauenstein Administrative Centre.
Lauenstein stands on a rock above the Müglitz valley in the eastern Erzgebirge, where the mountains tilt down toward Saxony and the Czech border is only a few kilometres off. The castle, a medieval stronghold that grew into a Renaissance residence, was long the seat of the Bünau family, a powerful Saxon dynasty, and its administrative centre controlled the surrounding district, with its farms, forests and mines. The little town gathered at its feet, with narrow lanes and old houses. Today the castle is a museum, with a dramatic position above the valley.
Read the complete Lauenstein Administrative Centre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lauenstein Administrative Centre, about halfway. Next is Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works.
Down in the valley of the Flöha, on the edge of Olbernhau, stands an industrial village that looks almost too neat to be real: slate-roofed workshops, a hammer mill, workers' houses and a stout gatehouse, all enclosed within a wall. This is the Saigerhütte Grünthal, a works that separated silver from copper ore by a technique called liquation, and it is one of the best preserved sites of its kind in Europe. It forms part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, listed by UNESCO in 2019 for both the German and Czech sides of the range.
Read the complete Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works sits at 150 km, about halfway. Next is back through Lauenstein Administrative Centre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lauenstein Administrative Centre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Lauenstein Administrative Centre comes up about 214 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Dresden Elbe Valley.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dresden Elbe Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 254 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Dresden Elbe Valley. Next is back through Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape, late in the day. Next is Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 323 km.
Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines → Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape → Dresden Elbe Valley is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dresden Elbe Valley → Lauenstein Administrative Centre is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lauenstein Administrative Centre → Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works → back through Lauenstein Administrative Centre is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lauenstein Administrative Centre → back through Dresden Elbe Valley is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dresden Elbe Valley → back through Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape → Dippoldiswalde Medieval Silver Mines is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.