Why this ride
A 394 km round trip from Erfurt - roughly 5 h 29 in the saddle. It goes by way of Wartburg Castle, Bad Kissingen and back through Wartburg Castle. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Stone House and Bad Kissingen
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 394 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 29
- 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
Stone House → Wartburg Castle
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 68 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 74 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Stone House
In the middle of Erfurt's old town, among tall, narrow houses with steep roofs, stands a stone building that has outlived most of its neighbours. The Steinernes Haus, the Stone House, is a medieval house built in the thirteenth century, and it is one of several buildings that record the life of the town's Jewish community, which was among the most important in medieval Germany. In 2023 the group of sites was added to the World Heritage list, together with the old synagogue and the ritual bath.
Read the complete Stone House write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Stone House is where the day begins. Next is Wartburg Castle.
2. Wartburg Castle
Martin Luther spent ten months of his life in a small room in the Wartburg, and it changed the German language. In 1521, after he had refused to recant at the Diet of Worms, his protector, the Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, had him seized on the road and secretly taken to the castle above Eisenach, where he lived in hiding under the name of Junker Jörg, a knight. There, in a few weeks, he translated the New Testament from Greek into German, a version that helped fix the written language and spread Reformation ideas. The room, with its panelled walls and a stove, is the heart of the castle.
Read the complete Wartburg Castle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Wartburg Castle comes up about 74 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bad Kissingen.
3. Bad Kissingen
Bad Kissingen is a spa town in the northern corner of Bavaria, in the valley of the Franconian Saale, between the Rhön hills and the Spessart. People have taken the waters here since the Middle Ages, and in the nineteenth century the town became one of the great resorts of Europe, visited by Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, by tsars and kings, and by Bismarck, who drafted his famous Kissinger Diktat in 1877. In 2021 UNESCO added the town to its list of the Great Spa Towns of Europe, alongside Baden-Baden, Bath, Karlsbad and others.
Read the complete Bad Kissingen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 198 km into the recorded legs you reach Bad Kissingen. Next is back through Wartburg Castle.
4. back through Wartburg Castle
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wartburg Castle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Wartburg Castle, late in the day. Next is Stone House.
5. Stone House
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stone House write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Stone House. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Stone House to Wartburg Castle
Stone House → Wartburg Castle is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Wartburg Castle to Bad Kissingen
Wartburg Castle → Bad Kissingen is 124 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bad Kissingen to back through Wartburg Castle
Bad Kissingen → back through Wartburg Castle is 124 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Wartburg Castle to Stone House
back through Wartburg Castle → Stone House is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.