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.
A 566 km round trip from Hortobágy - roughly 10 h 52 in the saddle. On the way it passes Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc, Rákóczi Wine Cellar, Component of Esztramos Hill and back through Rákóczi Wine Cellar. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Hortobágy is Hungary's great grassland, the puszta, a flat, wide, open plain in the east of the country, and it is unlike anything else in central Europe. Nearly eight hundred square kilometres of it is protected as a national park, which was the first in Hungary, and it is on the World Heritage list too. What you see from the road is grass, sky, horizon, and then, if the light is right, something odd shimmering on the horizon, which locals will tell you is the fata morgana, a mirage that has fooled travellers for centuries.
Read the complete Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta is where the day begins. Next is Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc.
Some wine regions are famous for a grape. Tokaj is famous for rot. Here in north-eastern Hungary, where the volcanic Zemplén hills meet the Great Plain and the Bodrog flows into the Tisza, autumn mists from the rivers encourage noble rot on the grapes, shrivelling them and concentrating their sugar. The berries, picked one by one, become aszú, and the sweet wine made from them has been celebrated for centuries. A line attributed to Louis XIV calls it the wine of kings and the king of wines.
Read the complete Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc comes up about 130 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rákóczi Wine Cellar.
Sárospatak is an old town on the Bodrog river, right where the foothills of the Zemplén range run out into the plain, and in Hungarian history it carries more weight than its size suggests. It was a seat of the Rákóczi family, and the castle in town was one of their strongholds in the long wars against the Habsburgs. Local tradition also claims it as the birthplace of Saint Elisabeth of Hungary, in 1207, and the Reformed College here, founded in the sixteenth century, once counted the Czech educator Comenius among its teachers. Not bad for a small place at the edge of the map.
Read the complete Rákóczi Wine Cellar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 170 km into the recorded legs you reach Rákóczi Wine Cellar. Next is Component of Esztramos Hill.
Esztramos is a lumpy limestone hill rising from the valley of the Bódva in north-eastern Hungary, a stone's throw from the Slovak border. For much of the twentieth century it was quarried for limestone and iron ore, and in the process the miners broke into caves hidden inside it, full of crystal formations. The Rákóczi Cave, the best known of them, has delicate aragonite crystals and pools, and the hill now forms part of the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst, a World Heritage site shared between the two countries. Visits to the cave are limited and usually need to be booked, so check before you count on getting inside.
Read the complete Component of Esztramos Hill write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Component of Esztramos Hill, about halfway. Next is back through Rákóczi Wine Cellar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rákóczi Wine Cellar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rákóczi Wine Cellar sits at 277 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc comes up about 435 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta closes the day.
Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta → Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc is 130 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc → Rákóczi Wine Cellar is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rákóczi Wine Cellar → Component of Esztramos Hill is 113 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Component of Esztramos Hill → back through Rákóczi Wine Cellar is 112 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Rákóczi Wine Cellar → back through Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landsc → Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta is 131 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.