Old Synagogue and Bad Kissingen

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Old Synagogue

   For a long time nobody in Erfurt knew that they were living above one of the oldest synagogues in Europe. The Old Synagogue stands in the narrow streets of the medieval centre, and its oldest walls date from the late eleventh century, with later enlargements in the Gothic style. After the pogrom of 1349, when the Jewish community was destroyed, the building passed into other hands and was used as a warehouse, a restaurant and a ballroom. Its original function was largely forgotten, until a restoration in the 1990s revealed the medieval walls under the later alterations.

   Read the complete Old Synagogue write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Old Synagogue is where the day begins. Next is Wartburg Castle.

2. 2. Wartburg Castle

   Martin Luther spent ten months of his life in a small room in the Wartburg, and it changed the German language. In 1521, after he had refused to recant at the Diet of Worms, his protector, the Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, had him seized on the road and secretly taken to the castle above Eisenach, where he lived in hiding under the name of Junker Jörg, a knight. There, in a few weeks, he translated the New Testament from Greek into German, a version that helped fix the written language and spread Reformation ideas. The room, with its panelled walls and a stove, is the heart of the castle.

   Read the complete Wartburg Castle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Wartburg Castle comes up about 73 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bad Kissingen.

3. 3. Bad Kissingen

   Bad Kissingen is a spa town in the northern corner of Bavaria, in the valley of the Franconian Saale, between the Rhön hills and the Spessart. People have taken the waters here since the Middle Ages, and in the nineteenth century the town became one of the great resorts of Europe, visited by Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, by tsars and kings, and by Bismarck, who drafted his famous Kissinger Diktat in 1877. In 2021 UNESCO added the town to its list of the Great Spa Towns of Europe, alongside Baden-Baden, Bath, Karlsbad and others.

   Read the complete Bad Kissingen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 197 km into the recorded legs you reach Bad Kissingen. Next is back through Wartburg Castle.

4. 4. back through Wartburg Castle

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Wartburg Castle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Wartburg Castle, late in the day. Next is Old Synagogue.

5. 5. Old Synagogue

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Old Synagogue write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Old Synagogue. That is the ride.