Why this ride
A 403 km round trip from Stuttgart Feuerbach - roughly 6 h 57 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hamberg Ditch, Speyer Cathedral, Old Jewish Cemetery Worms and Exhibition grounds 1904. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung and Exhibition grounds 1904
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 403 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 57
- 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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Bertha Benz Memorial Route
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 63 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 63 km
- Named road
- Bertha Benz Memorial Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung
In 1927, on a hillside overlooking Stuttgart, a group of the most radical architects in Europe built an entire housing estate in a few months as an exhibition of what modern living could look like. The Weissenhof Estate, organised by the Deutscher Werkbund under the direction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, brought together Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Hans Scharoun, J.J.P. Oud and others, and their flat-roofed, white-walled houses became a manifesto for the International Style.
Read the complete Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung is where the day begins. Next is Hamberg Ditch.
2. Hamberg Ditch
Maulbronn is a small town in the folded country where the Kraichgau meets the Stromberg hills, and its Cistercian monastery is the best-preserved medieval monastery north of the Alps. The Hamberg ditch belongs to a very different part of the story, the hydrology that kept the monks fed and powered. The Cistercians were famous engineers, and at Maulbronn they dug ditches, built dams and shaped ponds so that the water supply could drive mills, fill fish ponds and flush drains. Parts of this system still survive in the surrounding woods, and UNESCO included the monastery and its water works in the 1993 listing.
Read the complete Hamberg Ditch write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hamberg Ditch comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Speyer Cathedral.
3. Speyer Cathedral
Some buildings impress you with height, others with mass. Speyer Cathedral does it with both, rising from the left bank of the Rhine with six towers and a long, rhythmic nave of red sandstone. It was begun around 1030 by the emperor Conrad II, the first of the Salian dynasty, and is generally considered the largest surviving Romanesque church in the world. Its crypt, a forest of sturdy columns and striped arches, holds the tombs of several emperors and kings, which tells you how central this town once was to the Holy Roman Empire.
Read the complete Speyer Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 107 km into the recorded legs you reach Speyer Cathedral. Next is Old Jewish Cemetery Worms.
4. Old Jewish Cemetery Worms
The Heiliger Sand in Worms is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe, with gravestones going back to the eleventh century. Weathered sandstone slabs lean at angles among the grass and trees, carved with Hebrew inscriptions, some barely legible after nearly a thousand years. Pebbles and small notes lie on many of them, left by visitors as a sign of remembrance, especially on the grave of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, a great scholar of the thirteenth century who died in captivity. Together with the synagogue and ritual bath of Worms and the Jewish sites of Speyer and Mainz, the cemetery forms the ShUM Sites, listed by UNESCO in 2021, recognising the Rhineland communities that shaped Ashkenazi Jewish culture in the Middle Ages.
Read the complete Old Jewish Cemetery Worms write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Old Jewish Cemetery Worms, about halfway. Next is Exhibition grounds 1904.
5. Exhibition grounds 1904
In 1899, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse invited a group of young artists and architects to Darmstadt and gave them a hill to build on. The Mathildenhöhe became an artists' colony and a showcase for Jugendstil, the German Art Nouveau, with studios, houses and exhibitions designed as total works of art, down to the cutlery. Behind it lay a simple idea: that art should shape everyday life, from the house to the chair to the wallpaper. The exhibitions of 1901, 1904, 1908 and 1914 drew visitors from all over Europe, and the ensemble was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2021.
Read the complete Exhibition grounds 1904 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Exhibition grounds 1904 sits at 202 km, about halfway. Next is back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms.
6. back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Jewish Cemetery Worms write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms comes up about 251 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Speyer Cathedral.
7. back through Speyer Cathedral
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Speyer Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 299 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Speyer Cathedral. Next is back through Hamberg Ditch.
8. back through Hamberg Ditch
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hamberg Ditch write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hamberg Ditch, late in the day. Next is Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung.
9. Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 403 km.
Leg by leg
Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung to Hamberg Ditch
Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung → Hamberg Ditch is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hamberg Ditch to Speyer Cathedral
Hamberg Ditch → Speyer Cathedral is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Speyer Cathedral to Old Jewish Cemetery Worms
Speyer Cathedral → Old Jewish Cemetery Worms is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Jewish Cemetery Worms to Exhibition grounds 1904
Old Jewish Cemetery Worms → Exhibition grounds 1904 is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Exhibition grounds 1904 to back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms
Exhibition grounds 1904 → back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms to back through Speyer Cathedral
back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms → back through Speyer Cathedral is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Speyer Cathedral to back through Hamberg Ditch
back through Speyer Cathedral → back through Hamberg Ditch is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hamberg Ditch to Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung
back through Hamberg Ditch → Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.