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 244 km round trip from Žatec - roughly 4 h 21 in the saddle. The stops in between: Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape, Uranium Mining Landscape and back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape. It crosses from Czechia into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Smell comes first here. Late in summer the air around Žatec turns green and faintly bitter, because this is the heart of the Saaz hop country and the harvest fills the lanes with the scent of cones being picked and dried. The hops grown on these slopes and flats along the Ohře river are the ones that give Czech lager, and Pilsner above all, its clean, spicy bite. The cultural landscape of the town and its fields earned UNESCO status in 2023, and the old hop-drying houses and brewery buildings in Žatec are the reason.
Read the complete Saaz Hop Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Saaz Hop Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
Mědník is a small, steep hill on the Czech side of the Ore Mountains, or Krušné hory, the range that forms the border between Bohemia and Saxony. It rises above the village of Měděnec, whose name, like the hill's, comes from the Czech word for copper. For centuries, miners tunnelled into the hill for copper and iron ore, and the hill is now part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, inscribed by UNESCO in 2019 as a cross-border site.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape.
Silver built Annaberg. In the late fifteenth century rich silver ore was found in the Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains on the border between Saxony and Bohemia, and a town was founded almost overnight in 1496 to house the miners. Within a few decades Annaberg was one of the largest towns in Saxony, and its wealth paid for the St. Annenkirche, one of the most beautiful late Gothic hall churches in Germany, with slender pillars branching into a star-ribbed vault like the trunks of trees.
Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 85 km into the recorded legs you reach Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape. Next is Uranium Mining Landscape.
Look at this landscape and you would never guess what was under it. The land south of Lößnitz and around Bad Schlema is green, pretty and slightly hilly, a foothill of the Ore Mountains with small towns, orchards and the Zwickauer Mulde river slipping through. But between 1946 and 1990 this was the heart of the Wismut mining company, a Soviet-German enterprise that dug uranium on a huge scale for the Soviet atomic programme. East Germany became one of the world's largest uranium producers, and the work left deep shafts, tall spoil heaps and a population who knew what their work was for and rarely spoke about it.
Read the complete Uranium Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Uranium Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape sits at 143 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape comes up about 188 km into the recorded legs. Next is Saaz Hop Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Saaz Hop Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Saaz Hop Landscape closes the day.
Saaz Hop Landscape → Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape → Uranium Mining Landscape is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Uranium Mining Landscape → back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape → back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Saaz Hop Landscape is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.