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.
235 km from Žatec to Žatec, about 4 h 17 of riding. The stops in between: Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape, Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region and back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape. It crosses from Czechia into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
The smell gives Žatec away in late summer. The fields around this small town in northwestern Bohemia are planted with hops, tall green vines climbing up wires on wooden poles, and when harvest comes in August, the air fills with their resinous, slightly bitter scent. Saaz hops, named after the German form of the town's name, have been prized by brewers for centuries for their fine aroma, and they are a key ingredient in Czech pilsner lagers. In 2023, UNESCO inscribed Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops, recognising the town's hop warehouses, drying kilns, packing houses and the surrounding hop gardens as a unique agricultural and industrial heritage.
Read the complete Žatec write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Žatec is where the day begins. Next is Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
Mědník is a small, steep hill on the Czech side of the Ore Mountains, or Krušné hory, the range that forms the border between Bohemia and Saxony. It rises above the village of Měděnec, whose name, like the hill's, comes from the Czech word for copper. For centuries, miners tunnelled into the hill for copper and iron ore, and the hill is now part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, inscribed by UNESCO in 2019 as a cross-border site.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape.
Silver built Annaberg. In the late fifteenth century rich silver ore was found in the Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains on the border between Saxony and Bohemia, and a town was founded almost overnight in 1496 to house the miners. Within a few decades Annaberg was one of the largest towns in Saxony, and its wealth paid for the St. Annenkirche, one of the most beautiful late Gothic hall churches in Germany, with slender pillars branching into a star-ribbed vault like the trunks of trees.
Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape. Next is Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region.
The word dollar comes from these hills. In the early sixteenth century, a silver rush at Joachimsthal, today's Jáchymov, made the town one of the largest in Bohemia, and the coins minted there, the Joachimsthaler, shortened to thaler, gave their name to currencies around the world. The Erzgebirge, or Krušné hory, the Ore Mountains on the Czech-German border, were mined for silver, tin, cobalt, iron and finally uranium for eight centuries, and the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2019.
Read the complete Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, about halfway. Next is back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape sits at 134 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape comes up about 185 km into the recorded legs. Next is Žatec.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Žatec write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Žatec closes the day.
Žatec → Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape → Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region → back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Annaberg-Frohnau Mining Landscape → back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Žatec is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.