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.
A 319 km round trip from Copşa Mică - roughly 6 h 19 in the saddle. It goes by way of Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy, Village of Saschiz-Keisd, Historic Centre of Sighişoara and Village of Viscri. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Valea Viilor means Valley of the Vineyards, and the name is honest: the slopes around the village were planted with vines long before anyone thought of mapping them. The Saxons called it Wurmloch, and its fortified church, a tall Gothic hall with a defensive storey built over the choir and a ring wall around it, is one of the seven on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Village of Valea Viilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Village of Valea Viilor is where the day begins. Next is Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy.
South of Sighișoara the hills fold into long, grassy valleys, and almost every one of them hides a village built around a church that was also a castle. This marker sits among them, close to Șaeș and Apold, two of the old Saxon settlements whose German names, Schaas and Trappold, still turn up on church plaques and in the memories of the few families who stayed.
Read the complete Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Village of Saschiz-Keisd.
The clock tower of the fortified church in Saschiz looks oddly familiar if you have just come from Sighișoara, and that is no accident: it was built in the image of the famous clock tower of the nearby town, a statement of local pride by the Saxon villagers who built it in the late fifteenth century. The church belongs to the World Heritage inscription for villages with fortified churches in Transylvania, a group of German-speaking Saxon communities that fortified their churches against Ottoman and Tatar raids. Above the village, on a wooded hill, are the ruins of a peasant citadel, where the inhabitants took refuge during attacks.
Read the complete Village of Saschiz-Keisd write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Village of Saschiz-Keisd. Next is Historic Centre of Sighişoara.
Sighișoara is a medieval citadel that people still live in, and that is what sets it apart. Founded by German settlers, the Transylvanian Saxons, who were invited by the Hungarian kings in the twelfth century to colonise and defend the region, it grew into a prosperous town of craftsmen's guilds, each of which built and defended its own tower in the walls. Nine towers survive out of the original fourteen, named after the tailors, shoemakers, tinsmiths, butchers, furriers and others, and the old town on its hill above the Târnava Mare river was listed by UNESCO in 1999.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Sighişoara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Sighişoara, about halfway. Next is Village of Viscri.
Viscri is the village people picture when they think of Transylvania's Saxon heritage, and it more or less lives up to it. A single long street of pastel houses, blue, ochre and white, stands gable end to the road, with geese in the ditch, horse carts at dusk and, at the top of the slope, a fortified church wrapped in thick white walls. It is part of the Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania listed by UNESCO, and it is one of the best preserved.
Read the complete Village of Viscri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Village of Viscri sits at 130 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of Sighişoara.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Sighişoara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centre of Sighişoara comes up about 204 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Village of Saschiz-Keisd.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Village of Saschiz-Keisd write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 227 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Village of Saschiz-Keisd. Next is back through Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy, late in the day. Next is Village of Valea Viilor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Village of Valea Viilor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 319 km.
Village of Valea Viilor → Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy → Village of Saschiz-Keisd is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Village of Saschiz-Keisd → Historic Centre of Sighişoara is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Sighişoara → Village of Viscri is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Village of Viscri → back through Historic Centre of Sighişoara is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Sighişoara → back through Village of Saschiz-Keisd is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Village of Saschiz-Keisd → back through Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Villages with Fortified Churches in Transy → Village of Valea Viilor is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.