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 282 km to Olbernhau; allow about 5 h 09 of riding. It goes by way of The Red Tower of Death, Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops and back through The Red Tower of Death. It crosses from Germany into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
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 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 comes up about 73 km into the recorded legs. Next is Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops.
If you have ever drunk a Czech lager, you have tasted Žatec. The town, known in German as Saaz, has been at the centre of a hop-growing region for centuries, and Saaz hops, with their delicate, spicy aroma, are considered among the finest in the world, prized by brewers from Pilsen to Japan. In 2023, Žatec and the landscape of Saaz hops became a World Heritage site, recognised for its hop gardens, drying kilns, packing houses and warehouses, which together tell the story of an industry that shaped the town and its surroundings. In the old town, many of the tall buildings with rows of small ventilation windows in their roofs were used to dry and store the hops.
Read the complete Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 148 km into the recorded legs you reach Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops. 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.
back through The Red Tower of Death, 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.
Back at Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works. That is the ride.
Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works → The Red Tower of Death is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Red Tower of Death → Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops → back through The Red Tower of Death is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Red Tower of Death → Grünthal Silver-Copper Liquation Works is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.