Why this ride
A 313 km round trip from Speyer - roughly 4 h 25 in the saddle. The stops in between: Old Jewish Cemetery Worms, Exhibition grounds 1904, Ruine Altenmuster and Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Speyer Cathedral and Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 313 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 25
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Castle Road
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 48 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 47 km
- Named road
- Castle Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Speyer Cathedral
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Speyer Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Old Jewish Cemetery Worms.
2. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Old Jewish Cemetery Worms comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Exhibition grounds 1904.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 92 km into the recorded legs you reach Exhibition grounds 1904. Next is Ruine Altenmuster.
4. Ruine Altenmuster
Lorsch Abbey, founded in the eighth century, became one of the most powerful monasteries of the Carolingian empire, with vast estates, a famous library and the patronage of Charlemagne himself. Its first home, however, was not on the site of the later abbey, but a short distance away, on an island in the Weschnitz river, a place known as Altenmünster, the old minster. The ruins of that first foundation, a few low walls in a meadow, are a quiet counterpoint to the abbey's most famous building, the Torhalle, a gatehouse with a façade of red and white stone panels, one of the few surviving examples of Carolingian architecture. The abbey and Altenmünster together have been on the UNESCO list since 1991.
Read the complete Ruine Altenmuster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ruine Altenmuster, about halfway. Next is Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt.
5. Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt
On a low hill above Darmstadt, at the very end of the nineteenth century, the young Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse decided to gather artists and let them build a new way of living. The Mathildenhöhe became an artists' colony from 1899, and its buildings are some of the best Jugendstil, the German Art Nouveau, anywhere. UNESCO listed the ensemble in 2021. Joseph Maria Olbrich designed most of the first generation, including the exhibition hall and the tall Wedding Tower, with its fingers of brick at the top, finished in 1908 as a gift for the Grand Duke's marriage.
Read the complete Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt sits at 163 km, about halfway. Next is back through Ruine Altenmuster.
6. back through Ruine Altenmuster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ruine Altenmuster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Ruine Altenmuster comes up about 188 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Exhibition grounds 1904.
7. back through Exhibition grounds 1904
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Exhibition grounds 1904 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 219 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Exhibition grounds 1904. Next is back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms.
8. back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old Jewish Cemetery Worms write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms, late in the day. Next is Speyer Cathedral.
9. Speyer Cathedral
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Speyer Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 313 km.
Leg by leg
Speyer Cathedral to Old Jewish Cemetery Worms
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 to Exhibition grounds 1904
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 to Ruine Altenmuster
Exhibition grounds 1904 → Ruine Altenmuster is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ruine Altenmuster to Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt
Ruine Altenmuster → Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt to back through Ruine Altenmuster
Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt → back through Ruine Altenmuster is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ruine Altenmuster to back through Exhibition grounds 1904
back through Ruine Altenmuster → back through Exhibition grounds 1904 is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Exhibition grounds 1904 to back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms
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 to Speyer Cathedral
back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms → Speyer Cathedral is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.