Why this ride
A 325 km round trip from Maulbronn - roughly 4 h 11 in the saddle. On the way it passes Speyer Cathedral, Baden-Baden and back through Speyer Cathedral. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Hamberg Ditch and Baden-Baden
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 325 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 11
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Bertha Benz Memorial Route
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 63 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 70 km
- Named road
- Bertha Benz Memorial Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Hamberg Ditch
Maulbronn is a small town in the folded country where the Kraichgau meets the Stromberg hills, and its Cistercian monastery is the best-preserved medieval monastery north of the Alps. The Hamberg ditch belongs to a very different part of the story, the hydrology that kept the monks fed and powered. The Cistercians were famous engineers, and at Maulbronn they dug ditches, built dams and shaped ponds so that the water supply could drive mills, fill fish ponds and flush drains. Parts of this system still survive in the surrounding woods, and UNESCO included the monastery and its water works in the 1993 listing.
Read the complete Hamberg Ditch write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hamberg Ditch is where the day begins. Next is Speyer Cathedral.
2. Speyer Cathedral
Some buildings impress you with height, others with mass. Speyer Cathedral does it with both, rising from the left bank of the Rhine with six towers and a long, rhythmic nave of red sandstone. It was begun around 1030 by the emperor Conrad II, the first of the Salian dynasty, and is generally considered the largest surviving Romanesque church in the world. Its crypt, a forest of sturdy columns and striped arches, holds the tombs of several emperors and kings, which tells you how central this town once was to the Holy Roman Empire.
Read the complete Speyer Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Speyer Cathedral comes up about 70 km into the recorded legs. Next is Baden-Baden.
3. Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is so nice they named it twice, as the old joke goes, though the doubling actually comes from distinguishing it from other places called Baden. Romans soaked in its hot springs, and the remains of their baths lie under the old town, but the town's golden age came in the nineteenth century, when European royalty, aristocrats, writers and gamblers flocked here to take the waters, stroll the avenues and lose fortunes at the casino. Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Brahms all spent time here. Baden-Baden is one of the eleven Great Spa Towns of Europe, listed together by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Baden-Baden write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 165 km into the recorded legs you reach Baden-Baden. Next is back through Speyer Cathedral.
4. back through Speyer Cathedral
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Speyer Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Speyer Cathedral, late in the day. Next is Hamberg Ditch.
5. Hamberg Ditch
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hamberg Ditch write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Hamberg Ditch. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Hamberg Ditch to Speyer Cathedral
Hamberg Ditch → Speyer Cathedral is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Speyer Cathedral to Baden-Baden
Speyer Cathedral → Baden-Baden is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Baden-Baden to back through Speyer Cathedral
Baden-Baden → back through Speyer Cathedral is 90 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Speyer Cathedral to Hamberg Ditch
back through Speyer Cathedral → Hamberg Ditch is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.