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 Sárospatak it runs 397 km to Sárospatak; allow about 6 h 33 of riding. The stops in between: Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc, Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill, Component of Plešivec plateau and Dobšinská Ice Cave. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Hungary into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Between the Bodrog and the first folds of the Zemplén hills, Sárospatak is a town you ride into slowly, because the streets are cobbled, narrow and full of people who are in no hurry. The Gomboshegy cellars lie barely a kilometre from the centre, on the slope where the vineyards begin, and that closeness is what I like about them: the wine is not a trip out into some remote estate, it is a few minutes from the bakery. Furmint and Hárslevelű are the grapes you will hear named, the two workhorses of the Tokaj region, and they make everything from dry whites with a flinty edge to the legendary sweet Aszú.
Read the complete Gomboshegyi Cellars write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gomboshegyi Cellars is where the day begins. Next is Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc.
Some wine regions are famous for a grape. Tokaj is famous for rot. Here in north-eastern Hungary, where the volcanic Zemplén hills meet the Great Plain and the Bodrog flows into the Tisza, autumn mists from the rivers encourage noble rot on the grapes, shrivelling them and concentrating their sugar. The berries, picked one by one, become aszú, and the sweet wine made from them has been celebrated for centuries. A line attributed to Louis XIV calls it the wine of kings and the king of wines.
Read the complete Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill.
The Szendrő-Rudabánya hills are a modest ridge of low wooded hills in northeastern Hungary, between the Bódva and Sajó valleys, and they are not on any tourist itinerary. That is a large part of their charm. This is the quiet borderland near Slovakia, with small villages, orchards, vineyards and forests of oak and hornbeam, where the roads are empty and the pace slows to that of a cart.
Read the complete Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 111 km into the recorded legs you reach Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill. Next is Component of Plešivec plateau.
The Slovak Karst is a world of limestone plateaus and deep gorges in southern Slovakia, along the Hungarian border, and the Plešivec plateau is one of its great tablelands, a high, flat-topped block of rock rising steeply above the valleys of the Slaná and the Štítnik rivers. Its surface is a rolling steppe of grass and scrub, pitted with sinkholes, and beneath it lies a maze of caves and abysses, part of the UNESCO site of the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst.
Read the complete Component of Plešivec plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component of Plešivec plateau, about halfway. Next is Dobšinská Ice Cave.
Step out of a warm summer day into the Dobšinská Ice Cave and the temperature drops to just below freezing within a few metres. The cave, on the northern edge of the Slovak Paradise in eastern Slovakia, holds a vast mass of ice, tens of thousands of cubic metres, with frozen floors, walls and columns that have built up over thousands of years. It was explored in 1870 by Eugen Ruffinyi, opened to visitors soon after, and became one of the first caves in Europe to be lit by electricity. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst, shared with Hungary.
Read the complete Dobšinská Ice Cave write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dobšinská Ice Cave sits at 196 km, about halfway. Next is back through Component of Plešivec plateau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component of Plešivec plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Component of Plešivec plateau comes up about 243 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 286 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill. Next is back through Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc, late in the day. Next is Gomboshegyi Cellars.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gomboshegyi Cellars write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 397 km.
Gomboshegyi Cellars → Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc → Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill → Component of Plešivec plateau is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Component of Plešivec plateau → Dobšinská Ice Cave is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dobšinská Ice Cave → back through Component of Plešivec plateau is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component of Plešivec plateau → back through Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Component of Szendrő-Rudabánya Hill → back through Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc → Gomboshegyi Cellars is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.