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.
197 km from Zschorlau to Zschorlau, about 3 h 53 of riding. The stops in between: Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, Karlovy Vary and back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape. 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.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 42 km this is Castle Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
In the Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains of Saxony, a handful of workshops once produced a colour that conquered Europe. Schindlers Werk, at Zschorlau near Aue, was a smalt works, where cobalt ore from the surrounding mines was ground, roasted and fused with sand and potash into a deep blue glass, then milled into pigment. Smalt coloured Dutch tiles, German porcelain and painters' blues, and Saxony held an almost complete monopoly on it for generations. The works was founded in the seventeenth century and has been preserved as a museum.
Read the complete Schindlers Werk Smalt Works write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Schindlers Werk Smalt Works is where the day begins. Next is Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.
The word dollar comes from these hills. In the early sixteenth century, a silver rush at Joachimsthal, today's Jáchymov, made the town one of the largest in Bohemia, and the coins minted there, the Joachimsthaler, shortened to thaler, gave their name to currencies around the world. The Erzgebirge, or Krušné hory, the Ore Mountains on the Czech-German border, were mined for silver, tin, cobalt, iron and finally uranium for eight centuries, and the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2019.
Read the complete Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Mědník Hill Mining Landscape. Next is Karlovy Vary.
Legend has it that Emperor Charles IV was out hunting in the forests of western Bohemia in the fourteenth century when a stag he was chasing, or in some versions one of his hounds, fell into a pool of scalding water, and that is how the hot springs of Karlovy Vary were found. Whatever the truth, the town that grew up around them bears his name, Karlsbad in German, and by the nineteenth century it had become one of the most fashionable spas in Europe, visited by tsars, composers, poets and the cream of European society. In 2021, it became part of the UNESCO listing of the Great Spa Towns of Europe.
Read the complete Karlovy Vary write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Karlovy Vary, 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 sits at 120 km, about halfway. Next is back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region comes up about 164 km into the recorded legs. Next is Schindlers Werk Smalt Works.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Schindlers Werk Smalt Works write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Schindlers Werk Smalt Works closes the day.
Schindlers Werk Smalt Works → Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region → Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Karlovy Vary is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Karlovy Vary → back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region → Schindlers Werk Smalt Works is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.