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.
393 km from Dessau to Dessau, about 6 h 33 of riding. On the way it passes The Castle Church, Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin, Berlin Modernism Housing Estates and The ADGB Trade Union School. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
39 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.
This part of the ride is 84 km of The Castle Church → Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin.
Walter Gropius did not only design a school, he designed the houses for its teachers, and the Masters' Houses in Dessau are among the most elegant homes of the modern movement. Built in 1925 and 1926 on a quiet street at the edge of a pine wood, they form a row of white, flat-roofed, cubic buildings, each one a variation on the same set of simple geometric forms: three semi-detached pairs for the masters and a larger villa for Gropius himself. Their clean lines, large windows and balanced proportions were a statement of what modern living could look like.
Read the complete The Masters’ Houses write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Masters’ Houses is where the day begins. Next is The Castle Church.
On 31 October 1517, according to tradition, a professor of theology named Martin Luther nailed a list of ninety five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, challenging the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church. Whether he actually used a hammer is debated by historians, but the theses spread rapidly across Germany and beyond, thanks to the printing press, and they sparked the Reformation, which transformed the religious, political and cultural life of Europe. The original wooden door was destroyed by fire in 1760, and in 1858 it was replaced by bronze doors bearing the text of the theses in Latin. Luther is buried inside the church, as is his friend and colleague Philipp Melanchthon.
Read the complete The Castle Church write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Castle Church comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin.
Potsdam lies just outside Berlin, in a landscape of lakes, rivers and woods along the Havel, and for over two centuries it was the summer residence of the Prussian kings and German emperors. Frederick the Great built the palace of Sanssouci here in the 1740s, a single-storey Rococo palace above terraced vineyards, where he wanted to live without worries, as its name suggests. His successors added more palaces, gardens and follies, and today the ensemble, together with sites in Berlin, forms one of Germany's largest UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Read the complete Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 120 km into the recorded legs you reach Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin. Next is Berlin Modernism Housing Estates.
Most World Heritage sites are palaces, cathedrals or ruins. Berlin got onto the list in 2008 with flats. The Berlin Modernism Housing Estates are six residential developments built between 1910 and 1933, among them the Hufeisensiedlung in Britz, shaped like a horseshoe around a pond, the Gartenstadt Falkenberg with its bright colours, the Weisse Stadt in Reinickendorf and the Siemensstadt estate. Architects such as Bruno Taut, Martin Wagner and Walter Gropius designed them to give ordinary working families light, air, green space and decent bathrooms at a time when many Berliners lived in dark, cramped tenement blocks around courtyards.
Read the complete Berlin Modernism Housing Estates write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, about halfway. Next is The ADGB Trade Union School.
In the pine woods just outside Bernau, north of Berlin, a cluster of yellow brick buildings steps down a gentle slope toward a lake, and it is one of the purest expressions of Bauhaus architecture anywhere. The Federal School of the General German Trade Union Federation, known by its German initials ADGB, was designed by Hannes Meyer, the second director of the Bauhaus, with Hans Wittwer, and built between 1928 and 1930 as a training college for union officials. Every detail, from the arrangement of the dormitory wings in staggered blocks to the glass corridor that runs down the slope, was designed to encourage community, light and a healthy life. It was added to the UNESCO Bauhaus site in 2017.
Read the complete The ADGB Trade Union School write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The ADGB Trade Union School sits at 196 km, about halfway. Next is back through Berlin Modernism Housing Estates.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Berlin Modernism Housing Estates write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Berlin Modernism Housing Estates comes up about 234 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin 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 Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin. Next is back through The Castle Church.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Castle Church write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The Castle Church, late in the day. Next is The Masters’ Houses.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Masters’ Houses write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 393 km.
The Masters’ Houses → The Castle Church is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Castle Church → Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin → Berlin Modernism Housing Estates is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Berlin Modernism Housing Estates → The ADGB Trade Union School is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The ADGB Trade Union School → back through Berlin Modernism Housing Estates is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Berlin Modernism Housing Estates → back through Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin → back through The Castle Church is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through The Castle Church → The Masters’ Houses is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.