The Odenwald is old, rounded country, a forested upland between the Rhine and the Main, and the Limes crosses its eastern edge in a line so straight that it looks drawn with a ruler. Near Gotzingen, a village in the Buchen district of Baden-Wurttemberg, the frontier ran past a small Roman building that archaeologists found in the fields. The remains are the foundations of a small military station or a farm building, in a place where the soldiers lived close to the line. It is a modest site, but it shows that the frontier was more than a wall.
The Odenwald Limes was the earliest part of the Upper German frontier, built in the 150s AD when the Romans pushed the border forward from the Main to the Neckar. The soldiers manned watchtowers set within sight of one another and lived in small forts. Local people called the line the Devil's Wall for centuries. UNESCO listed the Limes in 2005, and this section is marked with posts and paths.
Buchen, the nearest big town, has about nineteen thousand people and has fuel, shops and cafes, and Seckach is a smaller place beside it. The countryside is the Bauland, a patchwork of fields, orchards and small woods in a gentle landscape, and the roads run over low hills with long views and quiet villages. The surface is generally good, and the bends are mild, with very little traffic. Spring brings blossom, and autumn brings mist and colour.
For a longer ride, the hills of the Odenwald to the west offer more curves, with good roads through beech and oak forest and past old castles on the Neckar. Take care at dusk, when deer cross the road. The Limes walking trail follows the line for many kilometres, and a short stroll along it is a good way to stretch before a long ride. The Bauland is a quiet place that few visitors notice, and its people are friendly and unhurried. Local inns serve solid food, with roast pork, dumplings and a glass of beer or cider.