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.
From Clausthal-Zellerfeld it runs 281 km to Clausthal-Zellerfeld; allow about 4 h 16 of riding. The stops in between: St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey and back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 61 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The two belong to the same story. The Upper Harz was one of the great silver and lead mining districts of Europe, and its engineers built an astonishing network of ponds, ditches and tunnels to bring water to the wheels that drove the pumps and hoists. That water system is part of the UNESCO listing, which took in Rammelsberg and Goslar in 1992 and was later extended to cover the Upper Harz. Today the ponds look like natural lakes, and it takes a moment to realise that someone dug every channel by hand.
Read the complete Mines of Rammelsberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mines of Rammelsberg is where the day begins. Next is St Mary's Catholic Cathedral.
In the courtyard of Hildesheim Cathedral, a rose bush climbs the wall of the apse, and the legend says it has been growing there for a thousand years. The "thousand-year rose" is linked to the founding of the bishopric in 815, when, so the story goes, Emperor Louis the Pious hung a reliquary on the branches of a wild rose and found it impossible to remove, taking it as a sign to build a chapel. Whatever the truth, the rose survived the bombing of March 1945, which destroyed the cathedral and much of the old town, and sprouted again from its roots in the rubble. The cathedral and the nearby Church of St Michael were inscribed by UNESCO in 1985 for their outstanding Romanesque architecture and art.
Read the complete St Mary's Catholic Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral comes up about 68 km into the recorded legs. Next is Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey.
Corvey sits in a loop of the Weser just outside Höxter, a baroque abbey palace set among meadows with the wooded hills of the Solling and the Weser Uplands closing in around it. The baroque part is handsome but not why people come. Hidden behind it, forming the entrance to the church, is a westwork built between 873 and 885, and it is one of the very few Carolingian buildings in the world still standing more or less as it was built.
Read the complete Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 140 km into the recorded legs you reach Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey. Next is back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St Mary's Catholic Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, late in the day. Next is Mines of Rammelsberg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mines of Rammelsberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Mines of Rammelsberg. That is the ride.
Mines of Rammelsberg → St Mary's Catholic Cathedral is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral → Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey → back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral → Mines of Rammelsberg is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.