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.
From Eisenach it runs 297 km to Eisenach; allow about 4 h 48 of riding. On the way it passes Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt, The former School of Applied Art, Naumburg Cathedral and back through The former School of Applied Art. The line favours views over speed.
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.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wartburg Castle is where the day begins. Next is Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt.
Erfurt is a compact, well-preserved medieval city in central Germany, and for hundreds of years it was home to one of the most important Jewish communities in the Holy Roman Empire. The Old Synagogue, with parts dating back to about 1100, is one of the oldest surviving synagogue buildings in Europe, and a ritual bath, or mikveh, uncovered in 2007 beside the Gera river was found in remarkably good condition. UNESCO listed the Jewish-medieval heritage of Erfurt in 2023, recognising the buildings as testimony to a community that thrived and then suffered.
Read the complete Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is The former School of Applied Art.
Weimar is a small city with a very large place in German culture. Goethe and Schiller lived and worked here, Liszt composed and taught, Nietzsche spent his last years here, and in 1919 the national assembly that created Germany's first democratic constitution met in the theatre, giving the Weimar Republic its name. That same year, the architect Walter Gropius founded a new art school in the city, merging the academy of fine arts with the school of applied arts, and called it the Bauhaus. The school building designed earlier by the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde, along with the main building of the art academy, became its home. These buildings, together with the Haus am Horn, are part of the UNESCO serial site of the Bauhaus and its sites, inscribed in 1996.
Read the complete The former School of Applied Art write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 99 km into the recorded legs you reach The former School of Applied Art. Next is Naumburg Cathedral.
The twelve figures in the west choir of Naumburg Cathedral are among the most famous sculptures of the Middle Ages, and once you have seen them, you understand why. Carved around the middle of the thirteenth century by an unknown artist known as the Naumburg Master, they represent the founders and benefactors of the cathedral, noblemen and noblewomen who had died two centuries earlier, but they look like real people, with individual faces, expressions and gestures. The most famous is Uta, the wife of Margrave Ekkehard, standing with her cloak drawn up to her face, cool and enigmatic, who has become an icon of German art. The cathedral, with its Romanesque and Gothic architecture and its rich sculpture, was listed by UNESCO in 2018.
Read the complete Naumburg Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Naumburg Cathedral, about halfway. Next is back through The former School of Applied Art.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The former School of Applied Art write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through The former School of Applied Art sits at 199 km, about halfway. Next is back through Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt comes up about 225 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wartburg Castle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wartburg Castle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wartburg Castle closes the day.
Wartburg Castle → Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt → The former School of Applied Art is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The former School of Applied Art → Naumburg Cathedral is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Naumburg Cathedral → back through The former School of Applied Art is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The former School of Applied Art → back through Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt → Wartburg Castle is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.