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.
170 km from Kirchberg to Kirchberg, about 3 h 27 of riding. The stops in between: Rother Berg Mining Landscape, Jáchymov Mining Landscape, Buchholz Mining Landscape and back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape. It crosses from Germany into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
The Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains, got their name for a good reason. In 1168, according to tradition, silver was found near Freiberg, and a rush followed that turned a forested ridge on the border between Saxony and Bohemia into one of the richest mining districts in Europe. For eight centuries, miners dug silver, tin, cobalt and iron from the hills, and later uranium, and the landscape is full of the traces: spoil heaps, pits, water channels, stamp mills and miners' towns. UNESCO listed the Ore Mountain mining region in 2019, in a property that spans Germany and the Czech Republic.
Read the complete Hoher Forst Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hoher Forst Mining Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Rother Berg Mining Landscape.
Schwarzenberg, in the western Erzgebirge, is a town of steep streets, slate roofs and a castle and church perched on a rock above the Schwarzwasser river, and the hills around it are riddled with old mine workings. The Rother Berg, the red mountain, takes its name from the iron ore that colours its soil, and it is one of the components of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, the cross-border UNESCO site listed in 2019. For eight centuries, miners in these mountains dug for silver, tin, iron, cobalt and later uranium, and their work shaped not only the landscape but the culture of the whole region.
Read the complete Rother Berg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rother Berg Mining Landscape comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jáchymov Mining Landscape.
The word dollar comes from this small town in the Ore Mountains. In the early sixteenth century, the silver mines of Jáchymov, then called Joachimsthal, were among the richest in Europe, and the coins minted here were called Joachimsthaler, shortened to thaler, which became daler and eventually dollar. The town grew rapidly, with thousands of miners, and it is now one component of the World Heritage inscription for the Erzgebirge mining region, shared between the Czech Republic and Germany. Its later history is darker and stranger.
Read the complete Jáchymov Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 52 km into the recorded legs you reach Jáchymov Mining Landscape. Next is Buchholz Mining Landscape.
The twin towns of Annaberg and Buchholz grew from silver. In the late fifteenth century a strike in the Ore Mountains set off a rush, and Annaberg was founded as a mining town with remarkable speed, while neighbouring Buchholz joined it later to form the double-barrelled name you see on the signs. The wealth shows in the St Annen church, a vast late-Gothic hall with a soaring vault, which stands over the market square like a promise made by men who suddenly had money. The wider mining landscape was inscribed by UNESCO in 2019, with its counterpart across the border in Jáchymov, where silver coins were once minted that gave the world the word thaler, and eventually the dollar.
Read the complete Buchholz Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Buchholz Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jáchymov Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape sits at 107 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rother Berg Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rother Berg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rother Berg Mining Landscape comes up about 148 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hoher Forst Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hoher Forst Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hoher Forst Mining Landscape closes the day.
Hoher Forst Mining Landscape → Rother Berg Mining Landscape is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rother Berg Mining Landscape → Jáchymov Mining Landscape is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jáchymov Mining Landscape → Buchholz Mining Landscape is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Buchholz Mining Landscape → back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape → back through Rother Berg Mining Landscape is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rother Berg Mining Landscape → Hoher Forst Mining Landscape is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.