The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 172 km round trip from Monheim am Rhein - roughly 3 h 20 in the saddle. It goes by way of Cologne Cathedral, Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1, Iversheim and back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1. The line favours views over speed.
Scenic road chapters
Monheim-Haus Bürgel → Cologne Cathedral
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 29 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
Length
29 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Monheim-Haus Bürgel
Haus Bürgel is a manor farm that sits on top of a Roman fort, quite literally. The walls of a late Roman fortification, built in the fourth century to guard the Rhine frontier, form part of the foundations and outer walls of the medieval and later farm buildings, and the site is part of the Lower German Limes World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2021. Between Monheim and Düsseldorf-Urdenbach, it lies in a broad meadow landscape on the right bank of the Rhine.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monheim-Haus Bürgel is where the day begins. Next is Cologne Cathedral.
2. Cologne Cathedral
Six hundred and thirty-two years. That is how long it took to finish Cologne Cathedral, from the laying of the foundation stone in 1248 to the completion of the spires in 1880, and when you stand at its foot by the main station it feels as though the building is still growing. The twin towers climb to around 157 metres, black with soot and weather, and for a few years after completion they made it the tallest building in the world.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cologne Cathedral comes up 30 km in. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1.
3. Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1
The Kottenforst looks like an ordinary Rhineland woodland of oak, beech and hornbeam, with walkers, joggers and the odd horse rider, but in the second half of the first century and beyond it was a training ground for the Roman army. In clearings of the forest, the legion stationed at Bonna, today's Bonn, built a series of temporary camps as exercises, digging ditches and raising ramparts to practise the rapid construction they would need in the field. The remains of these camps, faint earthworks under the trees, are included in the Lower Germanic Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2021. Am Weissen Stein is one of the northern groups.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
60 km in you reach Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1. Next is Iversheim.
4. Iversheim
Iversheim is a village in the valley of the Erft, at the northern edge of the Eifel, just downstream from the old spa town of Bad Münstereifel. It is known for one thing: a Roman lime-burning works, one of the best preserved in Europe. The Romans built a series of kilns here to burn limestone from the surrounding hills into quicklime, which was used to make mortar for the forts, towns and roads of the province of Lower Germany. The kilns were worked by detachments of soldiers from the Rhine legions, as inscriptions found on the site show.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monheim-Haus Bürgel closes the day.
Leg by leg
Monheim-Haus Bürgel to Cologne Cathedral
Monheim-Haus Bürgel → Cologne Cathedral is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cologne Cathedral to Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1
Cologne Cathedral → Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 to Iversheim
Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 → Iversheim is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Iversheim to back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1
Iversheim → back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 to back through Cologne Cathedral
back through Kottenforst Nord | Am Weißen Stein 1 → back through Cologne Cathedral is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cologne Cathedral to Monheim-Haus Bürgel
back through Cologne Cathedral → Monheim-Haus Bürgel is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.