Hainich and Luther's birthplace

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Hainich

   Hainich is a long, low ridge of beech forest in the middle of Germany, and it has the distinction of being one of the few places in Europe where beech trees have been left to grow old. The national park, established in 1997, covers a large part of the ridge, and its oldest stands are part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and other Regions of Europe, a UNESCO listing. You notice the difference at once: tall, straight silver trunks, massive fallen logs covered in fungi, and a forest floor that smells of mould and mushrooms.

   Read the complete Hainich write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hainich is where the day begins. Next is Classical Weimar.

2. 2. Classical Weimar

   Weimar is small, about 65,000 people, and for a few decades around 1800 it was the cultural capital of the German-speaking world. Goethe moved here in 1775 at the invitation of the young Duke Carl August, and stayed for most of his life. Schiller came later, Herder and Wieland were already in town, and together they made the little court a place where poetry, philosophy and theatre were taken very seriously. The Goethe house on the Frauenplan and Schiller's house nearby are open to visitors, and the Park an der Ilm, a landscaped garden along the river, has Goethe's garden house. The UNESCO listing covers these and other buildings of the era.

   Read the complete Classical Weimar write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Classical Weimar comes up about 93 km into the recorded legs. Next is Luther's birthplace.

3. 3. Luther's birthplace

   Martin Luther was born in Eisleben on 10 November 1483, and by an odd twist of fate he died here too, in 1546, while on a visit to settle a dispute between the counts of Mansfeld. The house where he was born was rebuilt after a fire in the seventeenth century and became one of the first museums in Germany dedicated to a single person. Together with the house where he died and the sites in Wittenberg where he lived and taught, it forms the UNESCO site of the Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg, listed in 1996. The museum tells the story of Luther's family, his childhood and the beginning of the Reformation, and it has been extended with modern exhibitions.

   Read the complete Luther's birthplace write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 187 km into the recorded legs you reach Luther's birthplace. Next is back through Classical Weimar.

4. 4. back through Classical Weimar

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Classical Weimar write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Classical Weimar, late in the day. Next is Hainich.

5. 5. Hainich

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Hainich write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Hainich. That is the ride.