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 78 km round trip from Alfter - roughly 2 h 00 in the saddle. The stops in between: Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at, Köln-Praetorium and back through Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at. The line favours views over speed.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 18 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The Kottenforst is a large forest on the hills west of Bonn, a remnant of the woodland that once covered the Rhine plain, and its northern part, near Alfter, is a quiet, old-fashioned place of oak and beech. For centuries it was a hunting forest of the Electors of Cologne, who ruled from Bonn, and the straight rides that cut through it, laid out for hunting parties, are still visible as long avenues between the trees. A hunting lodge of the eighteenth-century elector Clemens August stands in the forest to the south.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 1 is where the day begins. Next is Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at.
Clemens August of Bavaria, prince-elector and archbishop of Cologne in the eighteenth century, loved two things above all: hunting with falcons and building in the latest style. At Brühl, just south of Cologne, he created two of the finest rococo buildings in Germany. Augustusburg Palace, his summer residence, has a staircase designed by Balthasar Neumann that is one of the masterpieces of the period, a whirl of marble, stucco and frescoes, and a formal French garden that stretches toward the forest. Falkenlust, a smaller hunting lodge at the end of a long avenue, was built for falconry, with a delightful interior decorated with tiles and lacquerwork. The two castles were listed by UNESCO in 1984.
Read the complete Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Köln-Praetorium.
Under Cologne's town hall there is a Roman palace, and you can walk through it. The Praetorium was the residence of the governor of the province of Lower Germany, a large building complex on the edge of the Rhine that dates from the first century and grew over the next few hundred years. The city, called Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, was founded in the first century AD and named for Agrippina, the mother of the emperor Nero, who was born in a camp nearby. The remains of the palace were found during rebuilding after the Second World War, and the cellars and corridors are now open as an archaeological site.
Read the complete Köln-Praetorium write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 42 km into the recorded legs you reach Köln-Praetorium. Next is back through Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at, late in the day. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 1. That is the ride.
Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 1 → Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at → Köln-Praetorium is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Köln-Praetorium → back through Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at → Kottenforst Nord | Domhecken 1 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.