Why this ride
288 km from Maulbronn to Maulbronn, about 3 h 39 of riding. It goes by way of Speyer Cathedral, Exhibition grounds 1904 and back through Speyer Cathedral. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Hochenacker Pond and Exhibition grounds 1904
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 288 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 39
- 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. 61 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 69 km
- Named road
- Bertha Benz Memorial Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Hochenacker Pond
Hermann Hesse ran away from Maulbronn after seven months. He was fourteen, a pupil at the Protestant seminary housed in the old monastery, and one day in 1892 he walked out and was found a day later in a field, cold and hungry. He later turned the experience into his novel Beneath the Wheel, and the monastery has not forgotten. The seminary buildings are still a school, and the cloister is among the best-preserved medieval monasteries in Germany, listed by UNESCO since 1993. Johannes Kepler and the poet Friedrich Hölderlin also studied here, which tells you the standard.
Read the complete Hochenacker Pond write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hochenacker Pond 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 69 km into the recorded legs. Next is Exhibition grounds 1904.
3. Exhibition grounds 1904
In 1899, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse invited a group of young artists and architects to Darmstadt and gave them a hill to build on. The Mathildenhöhe became an artists' colony and a showcase for Jugendstil, the German Art Nouveau, with studios, houses and exhibitions designed as total works of art, down to the cutlery. Behind it lay a simple idea: that art should shape everyday life, from the house to the chair to the wallpaper. The exhibitions of 1901, 1904, 1908 and 1914 drew visitors from all over Europe, and the ensemble was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2021.
Read the complete Exhibition grounds 1904 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach Exhibition grounds 1904. 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 Hochenacker Pond.
5. Hochenacker Pond
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hochenacker Pond write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Hochenacker Pond. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Hochenacker Pond to Speyer Cathedral
Hochenacker Pond → Speyer Cathedral is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Speyer Cathedral to Exhibition grounds 1904
Speyer Cathedral → Exhibition grounds 1904 is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Exhibition grounds 1904 to back through Speyer Cathedral
Exhibition grounds 1904 → back through Speyer Cathedral is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Speyer Cathedral to Hochenacker Pond
back through Speyer Cathedral → Hochenacker Pond is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.