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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Völklingen it runs 312 km to Völklingen; allow about 5 h 23 of riding. It goes by way of Igel Column, City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F, La place forte de Longwy and back through City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F. It crosses Germany, Luxembourg and France - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
For about 43 km this is Luxembourg Mullerthal Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
The ride follows Luxembourg Mullerthal Route for 38 km.
Rust, soot and colossal machinery: the Völklingen Ironworks is a cathedral of heavy industry, and walking through it is an overwhelming experience. Founded in 1873 and developed by the Röchling family into one of the largest iron producers in Europe, the works produced pig iron from 1883 until 1986, when the blast furnaces were shut down. Instead of being demolished, the complex was preserved, and in 1994 it became the first industrial monument from the heyday of heavy industry to be listed by UNESCO. Today visitors can climb the blast furnaces, walk through the huge blowing engine hall, and explore the coking plant and the ore storage, much of which has been taken over by nature, with birch trees and wild plants growing among the steel.
Read the complete Völklingen Ironworks write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Völklingen Ironworks is where the day begins. Next is Igel Column.
The Igel Column is one of those Roman monuments that seems to have survived by a happy accident. It stands in the village of Igel, on the Moselle a few kilometres upstream from Trier, a sandstone pillar some twenty-three metres high, covered with carved scenes. It was built in the third century as a funerary monument for the Secundinii, a family of wealthy cloth merchants, and the reliefs show them at work: bales of cloth being loaded and transported, customers being received, and a family meal, as well as mythological scenes on the upper sections. In the Middle Ages, people came to believe it showed the marriage of Constantine's mother, St Helena, which probably saved it from being broken up for building stone.
Read the complete Igel Column write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Igel Column comes up about 75 km into the recorded legs. Next is City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F.
Luxembourg City is built on a rocky plateau above the deep, green valleys of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers, and for centuries it was one of the most powerful fortresses in Europe, nicknamed the Gibraltar of the North. Spanish, French, Austrian and Prussian armies all held it, and each added to its walls, bastions and tunnels. In 1867, after an international treaty, most of the fortifications were dismantled, but enough remains to make the old quarters and fortifications a UNESCO World Heritage site, inscribed in 1994.
Read the complete City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 118 km into the recorded legs you reach City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F. Next is La place forte de Longwy.
In 1678, after Louis XIV won Longwy from the Spanish Netherlands in the Treaty of Nijmegen, he sent his great military engineer Vauban to make sure nobody took it back. Vauban did not just fortify the old town; he built a new one, Longwy-Haut, on the plateau, designing a star-shaped stronghold with bastions, ditches and a geometric grid of streets around a central square with a well and church. It is one of the twelve sites grouped as the Fortifications of Vauban on the World Heritage list, and walking the ramparts you can still read the logic of seventeenth-century siege warfare in the earth and stone.
Read the complete La place forte de Longwy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La place forte de Longwy, about halfway. Next is back through City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F sits at 208 km, about halfway. Next is back through Igel Column.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Igel Column write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Igel Column comes up about 237 km into the recorded legs. Next is Völklingen Ironworks.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Völklingen Ironworks write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Völklingen Ironworks closes the day.
Völklingen Ironworks → Igel Column is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Igel Column → City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F → La place forte de Longwy is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La place forte de Longwy → back through City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and F → back through Igel Column is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Igel Column → Völklingen Ironworks is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.