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.
338 km from Dresden to Dresden, about 6 h 27 of riding. The stops in between: Lauenstein Administrative Centre, Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works, Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape and The Red Tower of Death. It crosses from Germany into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 40 km this is Saxon Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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.
Dresden Elbe Valley is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works. Next is Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape.
Silver built Annaberg. In the late fifteenth century rich silver ore was found in the Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains on the border between Saxony and Bohemia, and a town was founded almost overnight in 1496 to house the miners. Within a few decades Annaberg was one of the largest towns in Saxony, and its wealth paid for the St. Annenkirche, one of the most beautiful late Gothic hall churches in Germany, with slender pillars branching into a star-ribbed vault like the trunks of trees.
Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is The Red Tower of Death.
The name sounds like a horror film, and the reality was grim enough. In the 1950s, the communist government of Czechoslovakia sent tens of thousands of political prisoners to labour camps in the Jáchymov region to mine uranium for the Soviet nuclear programme. In a red brick building near Ostrov, known as the Red Tower of Death, prisoners crushed and sorted uranium ore by hand, without protection, exposed to dust and radiation. Many died or suffered lasting illness. The building is now a memorial, part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region World Heritage listing, and a powerful reminder of the human cost of the Cold War.
Read the complete The Red Tower of Death write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Red Tower of Death sits at 162 km, about halfway. Next is back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape comes up about 209 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 246 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works. 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, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 338 km.
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 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works → Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape → The Red Tower of Death is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Red Tower of Death → back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape → back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works → back through Lauenstein Administrative Centre is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Lauenstein Administrative Centre → Dresden Elbe Valley is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.