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.
265 km from Speyer to Speyer, about 3 h 29 of riding. It goes by way of Old Jewish Cemetery Worms, Exhibition grounds 1904, Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens and back through Exhibition grounds 1904. 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 47 km this is Castle Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Speyer is known for its cathedral, a huge Romanesque church where several medieval emperors are buried, but a few hundred metres away lies a quieter site that matters just as much. The Judenhof, the Jewry Court, was the centre of the medieval Jewish community, and it contains the ruins of a synagogue from the early twelfth century and a mikveh, a ritual bath, that is generally regarded as the oldest in Europe. The mikveh is reached by steep steps down into a cool, vaulted chamber where groundwater still collects. It is a remarkable place, and the stone is beautifully worked.
Read the complete Speyer Jewry-Court write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Speyer Jewry-Court 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 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.
back through Exhibition grounds 1904 sits at 179 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 219 km into the recorded legs. Next is Speyer Jewry-Court.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Speyer Jewry-Court write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Speyer Jewry-Court closes the day.
Speyer Jewry-Court → 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 → 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 Jewry-Court is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.