Time Out Bicycle Experience: Raptors & Knights Tour

The tour starts at the Tourist Information Office on the market square in Riedenburg, a town with three castles in a romantic setting in the Altmühl Valley. The route runs alongside the town pond to the Schambach Valley railway cycle path, which follows the route of a former railway line. You leave Riedenburg on this mainly level railway embankment.

After the town of Hexenagger with its castle, which is worth seeing, and the historic smithy the route continues towards Altmannstein and its ruined fortress. The next imposing castle awaits in Sandersdorf, where you leave the cycle path and take the Deutscher Limes cycle path, which you stay on until Schamhaupten. In the Hummel Valley you have to tackle the steepest section of the route, which leads to Thann.

The effort is rewarded when you reach the Jura Plateau: from here, at the highest point of the tour, you look out over the surrounding valleys. A detour to Eggersberg Castle and its museum, where the exhibits include suits of armour, and the nearby cliff-top viewpoint overlooking the Altmühl Valley is recommended.

The Raptors & Knights Tour then carries on past the last two mediaeval structures: the ruined fortress of Rabenstein and Rosenburg Castle are both worth visiting and at the latter you can watch unique flying displays featuring birds of prey from the castle falconry. Then it’s downhill back to the starting point of the tour in Riedenburg, where attractions such as the Crystal Museum and a choice of places to make a stop complete the tour.