Why this ride
From Weimar it runs 192 km to Weimar; allow about 4 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes Mikveh, Hainich and back through Mikveh. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The Former School of Art and Hainich
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 192 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 27
- 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. The Former School of Art
Henry van de Velde was a Belgian painter turned designer, and he is the reason Weimar has a building that looks like the future of 1906. The Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar brought him here to reform the local art and craft school, and in 1904 he designed a new school building for it, a plain, bright structure with big windows, clean lines and a staircase of studied elegance, in the Art Nouveau style that Germans call Jugendstil. When Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919, he merged it with this school and took over its building, so the walls that housed one tradition passed to the next with hardly a change of paint.
Read the complete The Former School of Art write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Former School of Art is where the day begins. Next is Mikveh.
2. Mikveh
In 2007, during construction work near the Krämerbrücke in Erfurt, archaeologists uncovered a medieval ritual bath, a mikveh, beside the river Gera, which had been forgotten for centuries. It dates from the thirteenth century and was used by the city's Jewish community until the pogrom of 1349, when the community was destroyed during the panic of the Black Death. It is now protected and can be visited on guided tours. Together with the Old Synagogue and the Stone House, a medieval residence, the mikveh forms the Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt, listed by UNESCO in 2023.
Read the complete Mikveh write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mikveh comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hainich.
3. Hainich
Hainich is a long, low ridge of beech forest in the middle of Germany, and it has the distinction of being one of the few places in Europe where beech trees have been left to grow old. The national park, established in 1997, covers a large part of the ridge, and its oldest stands are part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and other Regions of Europe, a UNESCO listing. You notice the difference at once: tall, straight silver trunks, massive fallen logs covered in fungi, and a forest floor that smells of mould and mushrooms.
Read the complete Hainich write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Hainich. Next is back through Mikveh.
4. back through Mikveh
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mikveh write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Mikveh, late in the day. Next is The Former School of Art.
5. The Former School of Art
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Former School of Art write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at The Former School of Art. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
The Former School of Art to Mikveh
The Former School of Art → Mikveh is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mikveh to Hainich
Mikveh → Hainich is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hainich to back through Mikveh
Hainich → back through Mikveh is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mikveh to The Former School of Art
back through Mikveh → The Former School of Art is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.