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.
Water, pine forest and castle roads north of the city. 141 km round from Oranienburg - plan on about 2 h 30 of riding. On the way it passes Gransee backroads, Rheinsberg castle and lake, Neuruppin lakefront and Kremmen moor roads. Back roads rather than main roads, where the map allows.
This part of the ride is 32 km of Oranienburg exit fuel → Gransee backroads.
26 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.
Oranienburg is a town on the Havel river, a short way north of Berlin, and it carries two very different histories side by side. On one side there is the palace, built in the seventeenth century for Louise Henriette of Orange, the Dutch-born wife of the Elector of Brandenburg, who gave the town its name. It was the first baroque palace in Brandenburg, and its Dutch influence is seen in the proportions and brick. The town became known as Oranienburg, the castle of Orange, and the palace now houses a museum and gardens.
Read the complete Photo stop near Oranienburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Oranienburg exit fuel is where the day begins. Next is Gransee backroads.
Gransee is a small town with a big memory. In 1810 the young Queen Luise of Prussia died suddenly at her family's summer residence, and her coffin was carried back to Berlin in a slow procession that rested overnight in Gransee. The town later raised a monument on the spot, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a delicate cast-iron canopy that still stands in the market square, a rare piece of early German neo-Gothic metalwork. It is lovely and a little sad.
Read the complete Gransee backroads write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gransee backroads comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rheinsberg castle and lake.
Rheinsberg belongs to the water. The town sits on the Grienericksee, with the long Rheinsberger Rhin running out toward the Ruppin lakes, and it is surrounded by a chain of lakes and forests that forms one of the quietest corners of Brandenburg. The palace is the headline attraction, but the lakes explain why the prince Frederick, later the Great, found the place so restful. On a still summer evening, with swans on the water and the pale walls of the castle reflected in the lake, it is easy to understand.
Read the complete Rheinsberg castle and lake write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Rheinsberg castle and lake. Next is Neuruppin lakefront food.
In 1787 a great fire destroyed most of Neuruppin, and the town was rebuilt on a grid, in a clean neoclassical style, with wide streets and a large parade ground. The plan, drawn up by royal officials, gives the place an unusual openness, and walking through it you can feel the order of the Enlightenment. The lake side of the town, however, kept its old character, and the lakefront is where you want to eat.
Read the complete Neuruppin lakefront food write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kremmen moor roads.
Kremmen sits at the edge of a marsh, and the roads around it are a lesson in how the Mark Brandenburg was made. The ground here is the Rhinluch, a broad, low-lying fen of peat and sand that was drained, diked and farmed from the eighteenth century onward, and the word Luch means exactly that, a wet meadow.
Read the complete Kremmen moor roads write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kremmen moor roads sits at 160 km, late in the day. Next is back to Oranienburg exit fuel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Photo stop near Oranienburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 141 km.
This Gransee backroads → Rheinsberg castle and lake stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
Rheinsberg castle and lake → Neuruppin lakefront food is the logistics leg. Watch junctions, villages and speed changes, then let the roadbook do its job: move you out of the clutter without spending your best attention too early.
Neuruppin lakefront food → Kremmen moor roads is the reward section in Berlin. Look through the bends, use legal pull-offs for photos and keep a little margin for tractors, cyclists and damp shade. The best ride here is smooth, not noisy.