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 Olbernhau it runs 395 km to Olbernhau; allow about 7 h 32 of riding. It goes by way of Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape, The Red Tower of Death, Eibenstock Mining Landscape and Františkovy Lázne. It crosses from Germany into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 76 km into the recorded legs you reach The Red Tower of Death. Next is Eibenstock Mining Landscape.
Eibenstock sits high in the western Erzgebirge, at about six hundred metres above the sea, in a country of spruce forests and cold, clear streams. It owes its origins to tin: miners worked the tin deposits here from the Middle Ages, and the mining landscape around the town, with old spoil heaps, shafts and water channels, is part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, which UNESCO recognised in 2019. Today, the traces are quiet, softened by moss and birch.
Read the complete Eibenstock Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eibenstock Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is Františkovy Lázne.
Františkovy Lázně, known in German as Franzensbad, is a small spa town in the far west of the Czech Republic that looks as if it has been painted in a single colour: yellow and white Empire-style buildings, colonnades and pavilions set in spacious parks, all laid out in the early nineteenth century around mineral springs. It was named after Emperor Francis I of Austria, and it became a fashionable resort, especially for women, because its waters and mud baths were believed to help with fertility. The bronze statue of a little boy holding a fish, known as František, is said to bring luck to women who touch it, and you will see that his foot has been polished by countless hands. Since 2021, the town has been part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage site, along with its larger neighbours, Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně.
Read the complete Františkovy Lázne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Františkovy Lázne sits at 183 km, about halfway. Next is back through Eibenstock Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Eibenstock Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Eibenstock Mining Landscape comes up about 267 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The Red Tower of Death.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Red Tower of Death write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 318 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Red Tower of Death. 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, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 395 km.
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 → Eibenstock Mining Landscape is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eibenstock Mining Landscape → Františkovy Lázne is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Františkovy Lázne → back through Eibenstock Mining Landscape is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Eibenstock Mining Landscape → back through The Red Tower of Death is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 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 → Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.