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.
195 km from Karlovy Vary to Karlovy Vary, about 3 h 59 of riding. It goes by way of Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape and back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape. It crosses from Czechia into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 42 km this is Castle Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.
The word dollar comes from these hills. In the early sixteenth century, a silver rush at Joachimsthal, today's Jáchymov, made the town one of the largest in Bohemia, and the coins minted there, the Joachimsthaler, shortened to thaler, gave their name to currencies around the world. The Erzgebirge, or Krušné hory, the Ore Mountains on the Czech-German border, were mined for silver, tin, cobalt, iron and finally uranium for eight centuries, and the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2019.
Read the complete Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
Mědník is a small, steep hill on the Czech side of the Ore Mountains, or Krušné hory, the range that forms the border between Bohemia and Saxony. It rises above the village of Měděnec, whose name, like the hill's, comes from the Czech word for copper. For centuries, miners tunnelled into the hill for copper and iron ore, and the hill is now part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, inscribed by UNESCO in 2019 as a cross-border site.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 66 km into the recorded legs you reach Mědník Hill Mining Landscape. Next is Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape.
Silver built Annaberg. In the late fifteenth century rich silver ore was found in the Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains on the border between Saxony and Bohemia, and a town was founded almost overnight in 1496 to house the miners. Within a few decades Annaberg was one of the largest towns in Saxony, and its wealth paid for the St. Annenkirche, one of the most beautiful late Gothic hall churches in Germany, with slender pillars branching into a star-ribbed vault like the trunks of trees.
Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape sits at 107 km, about halfway. Next is back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region comes up about 146 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Karlovy Vary closes the day.
Karlovy Vary → Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region → Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape → back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region → Karlovy Vary is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.