From Bayreuth to the Source of the Red Main

If you need technical assistance, you can head for these repair stations along the route:

Radgarten, Friedrichstraße 40, 95444 Bayreuth, Tel. 0921 1691901
Radhaus Hensel & Koller, Nürnberger Str. 48, tel. 0921 721 489
Repair stand on Richard-Wagner-Strasse 13, 95444 Bayreuth

There are 200 bicycle parking spaces in the immediate vicinity of the station.

You start at Bayreuth main station, from where you can reach Bayreuth's tourist information office in 10 minutes. Here you have the possibility to rent an e-bike.

The Tourist Information Bayreuth is a well-equipped contact point for guests and residents who want to find out about sights, accommodation, gastro tips and events in the Wagner city. Maps and tickets can be purchased here. Various city tours and walking routes are always worth recommending.

But not only that:
Bayreuth also offers an e-bike rental service at this address.
Equipped with these, Bayreuth's guests can easily climb mountains and enjoy tours in the Bayreuth surroundings, Franconian Switzerland or the Fichtel Mountains.

Bicycles can be rented from April to October. The rental fee is € 35.00 per bike and day. A copy of your identity card is required to rent the bike and a deposit of € 150.00 per bike will be retained until the bike is returned. Please ask for the current availability of the bikes and opening hours before you start your journey.

From the tourist information office, continue along the route, past the Hofgarten, pass Rudolstädter Platz, take Universitätsstraße out of town.

Via the villages of Destuben, Unternschreez, Haag you finally reach Lindenhardter Forst. Follow the signs to Rote Main Quelle and here do not follow the hiking trail, as this is easier for pedestrians than for cyclists. On the cycle path you will come straight to the Rote Main Quelle.

The Red Main is one of the two headwaters of the Main. It rises in Franconian Switzerland and joins the right and northern headwaters of the Weißer Main at the western outskirts of Kulmbach.

The Rote Main rises ten kilometres south of Bayreuth in the Lindenhardt Forest at an altitude of 581 m above sea level. The headwaters are located in the Franconian Switzerland-Veldenstein Forest Nature Park. Geologically, it belongs to the Brown Jurassic. The spring was set in stone in 1907 and the water flows out of it via a wooden pipe. There is a hiker's rest area at the source.

The river takes its name from the boggy red underground and the sediment of clay particles it carries, which makes it appear reddish. The Red Main is 72 km long and flows over a gradient of 283 metres. On its way, it is fed not only by the source, but also by 41 tributaries.

On forest and field paths, between fields and small forests, the route now heads out of Lindenharter Forst towards Creußen, on the Main cycle path. To the side, a little further away, are the villages of Wasserkraut and Gottsfeld. Via Bühl you finally cycle to Creußen.

Perhaps you would like to stop for a snack? Then the Backhaus Kutzer in Bayreuther Straße 8 or Bäckerei Heizer in Neuhofer Straße 4 in Creußen are ideal.

Creußen stoneware was world-famous in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century there were the first collections of various vessels, which were documented by the town fathers. These collections were soon pressed by people interested in buying them, whereupon the then mayor Grüner decided that the collected jugs and vessels should be preserved as a collection and "put on display" for posterity.

The jug museum is located in the medieval town centre of Creußen. It is housed directly on the town wall in the former gatekeeper's house and in the northern town gate and is home to a special treasure: the world-famous Creußen stoneware. It was once "good manners" among the nobility and patricians to have richly decorated drinking jugs made with their own coat of arms or name. The high esteem in which they were held by their former users and their heirs has ensured that the vessels have been preserved.

From Creußen you head north again back towards Bayreuth. You follow the course of the Red Main, which meanders through the landscape on your right.

You cycle past small settlements, numerous fields and meadows, parallel to the B2, the oldest federal road in Germany, to Oberkonnersreuth in the south of Bayreuth. Here the Storchenkeller awaits you with food and drink.

The Storchenkeller is a beer garden in Oberkonnersreuth. It is part of the restaurant "Zur Sudpfanne". The restaurant with country house ambience, brasserie and beer garden offers international and Franconian cuisine as well as daily changing lunch dishes, the beer of the day and the spritzer of the day. In summer, the green roof - the decades-old lime trees - provides shade under which you can linger. In addition, a large playground offers fun and variety for the younger guests.

Well-strengthened, you now follow the Main cycle path and come back directly to the starting point in the city centre. First to the Tourist Information, where you can drop off your rental bike if necessary, or you can land directly at the station.