Why this ride
From Clausthal-Zellerfeld it runs 172 km to Clausthal-Zellerfeld; allow about 3 h 09 of riding. It goes by way of Fagus Factory in Alfeld, St Mary's Catholic Cathedral and back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Mines of Rammelsberg and St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 172 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 09
- 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: 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.
Scenic road chapters
Fagus Factory in Alfeld → St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 28 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 33 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Mines of Rammelsberg
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mines of Rammelsberg is where the day begins. Next is Fagus Factory in Alfeld.
2. Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Stand across the railway tracks and look at the Fagus works, and you are looking at one of the buildings where modern architecture started. In 1911 the shoe-last maker Carl Benscheidt hired a young Walter Gropius and his partner Adolf Meyer to design a new factory in Alfeld, in the Leine valley of Lower Saxony. They gave it walls of glass that seem to wrap around the corners with no column to hold them, a radical trick at the time, and the result was so influential that it became a UNESCO site in 2011. The best part: it is still a working factory making shoe lasts, not a museum frozen in place.
Read the complete Fagus Factory in Alfeld write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fagus Factory in Alfeld comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is St Mary's Catholic Cathedral.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach St Mary's Catholic Cathedral. Next is back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld.
4. back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fagus Factory in Alfeld write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld, late in the day. Next is Mines of Rammelsberg.
5. Mines of Rammelsberg
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mines of Rammelsberg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Mines of Rammelsberg. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Mines of Rammelsberg to Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Mines of Rammelsberg → Fagus Factory in Alfeld is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fagus Factory in Alfeld to St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
Fagus Factory in Alfeld → St Mary's Catholic Cathedral is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral to back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral → back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld to Mines of Rammelsberg
back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld → Mines of Rammelsberg is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.