Why this ride
A 247 km round trip from Jáchymov - roughly 3 h 45 in the saddle. On the way it passes Žatec, Marienberg Mining Town and back through Žatec. It crosses from Czechia into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Jáchymov Mining Landscape and Marienberg Mining Town
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 247 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 45
- 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Jáchymov Mining Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Žatec.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Žatec comes up about 69 km into the recorded legs. Next is Marienberg Mining Town.
3. Marienberg Mining Town
In 1521 Duke Heinrich of Saxony founded a new town in the Ore Mountains to house miners drawn by recent silver strikes, and he had it laid out on a regular grid around a huge square market place, following Renaissance ideas of the ideal city. Marienberg is the result, and its plan is still clearly visible, with straight streets, the town church, the Zschopau gate and a stretch of town wall. The town is part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, the cross-border World Heritage Site inscribed in 2019, which recognises eight hundred years of mining in these mountains.
Read the complete Marienberg Mining Town write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 124 km into the recorded legs you reach Marienberg Mining Town. Next is back through Žatec.
4. back through Žatec
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Žatec write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Žatec, late in the day. Next is Jáchymov Mining Landscape.
5. Jáchymov Mining Landscape
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jáchymov Mining Landscape write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Jáchymov Mining Landscape. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Jáchymov Mining Landscape to Žatec
Jáchymov Mining Landscape → Žatec is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Žatec to Marienberg Mining Town
Žatec → Marienberg Mining Town is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Marienberg Mining Town to back through Žatec
Marienberg Mining Town → back through Žatec is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Žatec to Jáchymov Mining Landscape
back through Žatec → Jáchymov Mining Landscape is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.