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.
South-east canals, forest connectors and quiet towns. A 206 km loop that starts and ends near Königs Wusterhausen, about 3 h 22 of riding. It goes by way of Schlepzig forest water, Lübben old town, Burg Spreewald water stop and Beeskow river roads.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 15 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
In December 1920 a group of postal engineers at Königs Wusterhausen broadcast a concert of carols and instrumental music from a hill outside town, and the sound went out across Germany. It is remembered as the country's first radio broadcast, and the hill, the Funkerberg, still carries a historic radio station and a museum of early broadcasting. Whatever the exact date, this was where German radio began, and the masts on the hill have been a landmark ever since.
Read the complete Königs Wusterhausen fuel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is Schlepzig forest water.
Schlepzig sits where the Spreewald stops being a tourist postcard and goes back to being forest. This is the Lower Spreewald, north of Lübben, where the Spree splits into slow channels beneath alder woods so dense that the light turns green, and the ground is more water than land. The trees grow in the wet, their roots arching above the surface, and in autumn the leaves float on the channels in drifts of orange.
Read the complete Schlepzig forest water write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Schlepzig forest water comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lübben old town.
Lübben is the stylish older sister of the Spreewald towns, a place of about fifteen thousand people on the river, with a small castle, a lively harbour and enough old streets to make a lunch stop feel like an event. The Spree comes in from the south in several arms, and the town grew up on the island between them, with water on every side.
Read the complete Lübben old town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Burg Spreewald water stop.
Burg is where the Spreewald water becomes a thing you can touch. The village has canals on every side, and a number of small landing stages where people launch punts and canoes, and in summer the water is warm, shallow and the colour of tea from the alder roots. A swim here is a traditional pleasure, and several spots along the channels have been set aside with steps and platforms.
Read the complete Burg Spreewald water stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burg Spreewald water stop, about halfway. Next is Beeskow river roads.
Beeskow is a small town on the Spree with a castle that has found a second life. Burg Beeskow, a medieval fortress of brick and fieldstone beside the river, was once a seat of local lords and later a prison and a granary. Today, it houses an art archive that holds thousands of paintings and sculptures commissioned by the East German state, a large and strange collection that gives a picture of the art of the old regime, and it also hosts concerts and exhibitions. The town around it, with about eight and a half thousand people, still has parts of its medieval wall, a Gothic church of St Marien and a market square with old houses.
Read the complete Beeskow river roads write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beeskow river roads sits at 182 km, late in the day. Next is Back to Königs.
Königs Wusterhausen has two claims on history, one to do with a soldier king and the other with a radio mast. In the early eighteenth century, Frederick William I of Prussia, the Soldier King, used the hunting lodge here as his favourite retreat, and it was the setting for the Tobacco Collegium, an all-male evening society where he smoked pipes with his generals and played rough jokes. The squat little palace still stands beside the Dahme river and is open as a museum. His son, who grew up to be Frederick the Great, hated the place.
Read the complete Königs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 206 km.
Schlepzig forest water → Lübben old town 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.
Lübben old town → Burg Spreewald water stop 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.
This Burg Spreewald water stop → Beeskow river roads 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.
Beeskow river roads → Back to Königs 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.