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 366 km round trip from Speyer - roughly 4 h 43 in the saddle. On the way it passes Old Jewish Cemetery Worms, Exhibition grounds 1904, Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens and Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor. The line favours views over speed.
48 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 49 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Some buildings impress you with height, others with mass. Speyer Cathedral does it with both, rising from the left bank of the Rhine with six towers and a long, rhythmic nave of red sandstone. It was begun around 1030 by the emperor Conrad II, the first of the Salian dynasty, and is generally considered the largest surviving Romanesque church in the world. Its crypt, a forest of sturdy columns and striped arches, holds the tombs of several emperors and kings, which tells you how central this town once was to the Holy Roman Empire.
Read the complete Speyer Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Speyer Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Old Jewish Cemetery Worms.
The Heiliger Sand in Worms is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe, with gravestones going back to the eleventh century. Weathered sandstone slabs lean at angles among the grass and trees, carved with Hebrew inscriptions, some barely legible after nearly a thousand years. Pebbles and small notes lie on many of them, left by visitors as a sign of remembrance, especially on the grave of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, a great scholar of the thirteenth century who died in captivity. Together with the synagogue and ritual bath of Worms and the Jewish sites of Speyer and Mainz, the cemetery forms the ShUM Sites, listed by UNESCO in 2021, recognising the Rhineland communities that shaped Ashkenazi Jewish culture in the Middle Ages.
Read the complete Old Jewish Cemetery Worms write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old Jewish Cemetery Worms comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Exhibition grounds 1904.
In 1899, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse invited a group of young artists and architects to Darmstadt and gave them a hill to build on. The Mathildenhöhe became an artists' colony and a showcase for Jugendstil, the German Art Nouveau, with studios, houses and exhibitions designed as total works of art, down to the cutlery. Behind it lay a simple idea: that art should shape everyday life, from the house to the chair to the wallpaper. The exhibitions of 1901, 1904, 1908 and 1914 drew visitors from all over Europe, and the ensemble was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2021.
Read the complete Exhibition grounds 1904 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 92 km into the recorded legs you reach Exhibition grounds 1904. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens.
Seligenstadt is one of those Main valley towns where every era has left something on the table. The Romans came first: here the frontier of the Upper German-Raetian Limes ran along the river itself, and a fort with a civilian settlement around it guarded the Main crossing. The fort site lies under the old town, so you are walking over it rather than looking at it, but the logic of the place is obvious when you stand by the water. The river was the border, the road and the supply line all at once.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens, about halfway. Next is Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor.
The Wetterau is a broad, fertile basin north of Frankfurt, a land of rich loess soils, wheat fields, orchards and old villages, and the Romans wanted it badly. Their frontier, the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, bulged out here to take in the whole basin, looping around it in a wide arc. At Ober-Florstadt stood a fort with a civilian settlement beside it, where soldiers' families, traders and craftsmen lived. Today little is visible, but the site is part of the World Heritage frontier, and information boards help to picture the scene.
Read the complete Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor sits at 178 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens comes up about 231 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Exhibition grounds 1904.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Exhibition grounds 1904 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 271 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Exhibition grounds 1904. Next is back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Jewish Cemetery Worms write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms, late in the day. Next is Speyer Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Speyer Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 366 km.
Speyer Cathedral → Old Jewish Cemetery Worms is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old Jewish Cemetery Worms → Exhibition grounds 1904 is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Exhibition grounds 1904 → Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortsite and civil settlement of Ober-Flor → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → back through Exhibition grounds 1904 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Exhibition grounds 1904 → back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms → Speyer Cathedral is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.