CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
284 km from Kirchberg to Kirchberg, about 5 h 03 of riding. On the way it passes Karlovy Vary, Žatec and back through Karlovy Vary. It crosses from Germany into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 Karlovy Vary.
Legend has it that Emperor Charles IV was out hunting in the forests of western Bohemia in the fourteenth century when a stag he was chasing, or in some versions one of his hounds, fell into a pool of scalding water, and that is how the hot springs of Karlovy Vary were found. Whatever the truth, the town that grew up around them bears his name, Karlsbad in German, and by the nineteenth century it had become one of the most fashionable spas in Europe, visited by tsars, composers, poets and the cream of European society. In 2021, it became part of the UNESCO listing of the Great Spa Towns of Europe.
Read the complete Karlovy Vary write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Karlovy Vary comes up 66 km in. Next is Žatec.
The smell gives Žatec away in late summer. The fields around this small town in northwestern Bohemia are planted with hops, tall green vines climbing up wires on wooden poles, and when harvest comes in August, the air fills with their resinous, slightly bitter scent. Saaz hops, named after the German form of the town's name, have been prized by brewers for centuries for their fine aroma, and they are a key ingredient in Czech pilsner lagers. In 2023, UNESCO inscribed Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops, recognising the town's hop warehouses, drying kilns, packing houses and the surrounding hop gardens as a unique agricultural and industrial heritage.
Read the complete Žatec write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
132 km in you reach Žatec. Next is back through Karlovy Vary.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Karlovy Vary write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Karlovy Vary, late in the day. 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.
Back at Hoher Forst Mining Landscape. That is the ride.
Hoher Forst Mining Landscape → Karlovy Vary is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Karlovy Vary → Žatec is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Žatec → back through Karlovy Vary is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Karlovy Vary → Hoher Forst Mining Landscape is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.