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 397 km round trip from Mariánské Lázně - roughly 6 h 48 in the saddle. It goes by way of Františkovy Lázne, Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, Schneeberg Mining Landscape and Lauta Mining Landscape. It crosses from Czechia into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Goethe fell in love here when he was already in his seventies. In the summer of 1821 and the years that followed, the poet spent his holidays in Marienbad, the spa town now known as Mariánské Lázně, and fell for Ulrike von Levetzow, a young woman of nineteen; his proposal was declined, and on the journey home he wrote the Marienbad Elegy, one of his most moving poems. The town was then at the height of its fame as one of the great spas of Europe, visited by kings, emperors and artists, from Edward VII of Britain to Chopin and Kafka.
Read the complete Mariánské Lázne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mariánské Lázne is where the day begins. Next is Františkovy Lázne.
Františkovy Lázně, known in German as Franzensbad, is a small spa town in the far west of the Czech Republic that looks as if it has been painted in a single colour: yellow and white Empire-style buildings, colonnades and pavilions set in spacious parks, all laid out in the early nineteenth century around mineral springs. It was named after Emperor Francis I of Austria, and it became a fashionable resort, especially for women, because its waters and mud baths were believed to help with fertility. The bronze statue of a little boy holding a fish, known as František, is said to bring luck to women who touch it, and you will see that his foot has been polished by countless hands. Since 2021, the town has been part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage site, along with its larger neighbours, Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně.
Read the complete Františkovy Lázne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Františkovy Lázne comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 109 km into the recorded legs you reach Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region. Next is Schneeberg Mining Landscape.
Schneeberg is a mining town high in the Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains, which divide Saxony from Bohemia, and its history is written in silver, cobalt and uranium. A silver rush in the late fifteenth century made the town rich, and the church of St. Wolfgang, a huge Gothic hall church with a Cranach altarpiece, was the proud result. Later the miners found cobalt, which was used to colour glass and porcelain a deep blue, and Saxony became the world's main supplier of that pigment. In the twentieth century came the Wismut company, a Soviet-German enterprise that mined uranium on a massive scale in the nearby valleys, leaving scars and also the radon spa at Bad Schlema. UNESCO listed the Erzgebirge mining region, including Schneeberg, in 2019.
Read the complete Schneeberg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Schneeberg Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is Lauta Mining Landscape.
Marienberg was laid out in 1521 as a planned silver town, with a vast square market place and streets set in a grid, an idea of urban order that was new in this part of Europe. Lauta, today a district of Marienberg, lies among the old mine workings, spoil heaps and shafts that fed that wealth, and it is one of the components of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, the cross-border World Heritage Site shared by Saxony and the Czech Republic and inscribed in 2019.
Read the complete Lauta Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lauta Mining Landscape sits at 188 km, about halfway. Next is back through Schneeberg Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Schneeberg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Schneeberg Mining Landscape comes up about 249 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 289 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region. Next is back through Františkovy Lázne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Františkovy Lázne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Františkovy Lázne, late in the day. Next is Mariánské Lázne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mariánské Lázne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 397 km.
Mariánské Lázne → Františkovy Lázne is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Františkovy Lázne → Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region → Schneeberg Mining Landscape is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Schneeberg Mining Landscape → Lauta Mining Landscape is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lauta Mining Landscape → back through Schneeberg Mining Landscape is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Schneeberg Mining Landscape → back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region → back through Františkovy Lázne is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Františkovy Lázne → Mariánské Lázne is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.