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.
317 km from Mitte to Mitte, about 5 h 21 of riding. It goes by way of Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin, The Town Church, Historical Graveyard Dessau and back through The Town Church. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
This part of the ride is 38 km of Museumsinsel → Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin.
The northern tip of an island in the Spree in the middle of Berlin holds five museums that between them cover about six thousand years of human history. The Museumsinsel, or Museum Island, grew out of a decision in the nineteenth century by the kings of Prussia to build a cultural centre in the heart of the capital, and the buildings, in neoclassical and neo-baroque style, were added one by one until the 1930s. UNESCO listed the ensemble in 1999. Among the treasures are the Pergamon Altar, the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, and the bust of Queen Nefertiti, which sits in the Neues Museum.
Read the complete Museumsinsel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Museumsinsel is where the day begins. Next is Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin.
Potsdam lies just outside Berlin, in a landscape of lakes, rivers and woods along the Havel, and for over two centuries it was the summer residence of the Prussian kings and German emperors. Frederick the Great built the palace of Sanssouci here in the 1740s, a single-storey Rococo palace above terraced vineyards, where he wanted to live without worries, as its name suggests. His successors added more palaces, gardens and follies, and today the ensemble, together with sites in Berlin, forms one of Germany's largest UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Read the complete Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Town Church.
Wittenberg is a small town on the Elbe, in flat sandy country, and it is the place where the Reformation began. The Town Church of St Mary was the church where Martin Luther preached for decades, and where in 1525 he was married to Katharina von Bora, a former nun. The twin towers rise over the market square, and the interior holds an altarpiece painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop, finished in the 1540s, which shows the Lord's Supper, baptism, confession and preaching, illustrating the new Protestant ideas in a way ordinary people could grasp. Luther himself and his friends appear in the paintings.
Read the complete The Town Church write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 123 km into the recorded legs you reach The Town Church. Next is Historical Graveyard Dessau.
Dessau is best known for the Bauhaus, but the city's older story is one of parks and princes. The Historical Graveyard, laid out in the Enlightenment spirit of the late eighteenth century, was designed as a landscape garden as much as a burial ground, with winding paths, old trees and monuments set among greenery. Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau, who created the nearby Garden Realm of Dessau-Wörlitz, believed that gardens could educate and uplift, and the cemetery follows the same idea: a place to walk and reflect.
Read the complete Historical Graveyard Dessau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historical Graveyard Dessau, about halfway. Next is back through The Town Church.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Town Church write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Town Church sits at 218 km, about halfway. Next is back through Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin comes up about 277 km into the recorded legs. Next is Museumsinsel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Museumsinsel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Museumsinsel closes the day.
Museumsinsel → Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin → The Town Church is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Town Church → Historical Graveyard Dessau is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historical Graveyard Dessau → back through The Town Church is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Town Church → back through Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin → Museumsinsel is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.