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.
A 301 km round trip from Annaberg-Buchholz - roughly 5 h 18 in the saddle. The stops in between: Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops, Lauenstein Administrative Centre and back through Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops. It crosses from Germany into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Pöhlberg is a basalt cone that stands up from the high Ore Mountains like a bump on a bedspread, and Annaberg-Buchholz lies at its feet. Both belong to the Erzgebirge mining region, which UNESCO listed in 2019 after eight centuries of digging for silver, tin, cobalt and later uranium. Annaberg was founded in the 1490s after a silver strike, and for a few decades it was among the richest places in Saxony. The money is still visible in the town's great late-Gothic hall church, St Anne's, whose tall, ribbed interior feels more like a cathedral than a parish church, and whose altar carvings were paid for by miners and mine owners hoping for luck underground.
Read the complete Pöhlberg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pöhlberg Mining Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops.
If you have ever drunk a Czech lager, you have tasted Žatec. The town, known in German as Saaz, has been at the centre of a hop-growing region for centuries, and Saaz hops, with their delicate, spicy aroma, are considered among the finest in the world, prized by brewers from Pilsen to Japan. In 2023, Žatec and the landscape of Saaz hops became a World Heritage site, recognised for its hop gardens, drying kilns, packing houses and warehouses, which together tell the story of an industry that shaped the town and its surroundings. In the old town, many of the tall buildings with rows of small ventilation windows in their roofs were used to dry and store the hops.
Read the complete Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops comes up about 74 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lauenstein Administrative Centre.
Lauenstein stands on a rock above the Müglitz valley in the eastern Erzgebirge, where the mountains tilt down toward Saxony and the Czech border is only a few kilometres off. The castle, a medieval stronghold that grew into a Renaissance residence, was long the seat of the Bünau family, a powerful Saxon dynasty, and its administrative centre controlled the surrounding district, with its farms, forests and mines. The little town gathered at its feet, with narrow lanes and old houses. Today the castle is a museum, with a dramatic position above the valley.
Read the complete Lauenstein Administrative Centre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 149 km into the recorded legs you reach Lauenstein Administrative Centre. Next is back through Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops, late in the day. Next is Pöhlberg Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pöhlberg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Pöhlberg Mining Landscape. That is the ride.
Pöhlberg Mining Landscape → Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops → Lauenstein Administrative Centre is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Lauenstein Administrative Centre → back through Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops → Pöhlberg Mining Landscape is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.