Welzheim sits up in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, a rolling upland of spruce, beech, deep stream valleys and old sawmills east of Stuttgart, and the Romans chose it for the same reason the forest still feels remote today: it was the edge. The Upper German-Raetian Limes ran dead straight through these woods, and Welzheim had not one fort but two, an east and a west fort, with a civilian settlement of traders, craftsmen and soldiers' families packed around them. The east fort has a reconstructed gate and a small archaeological park that gives you a good sense of scale, and the whole frontier line is part of a UNESCO site.
What strikes many visitors is the straightness of that line. For tens of kilometres north of here, the Romans laid out the frontier with almost no deviation, ignoring hills and valleys, a feat of surveying that still puzzles historians. You can follow its course on small roads and forest tracks, with reconstructed watchtowers popping up along the way.
The riding is the reason to linger. The roads around Welzheim, Kaisersbach and Althütte twist through forest and clearings, dropping into narrow valleys and climbing back out over short, sharp ridges, with villages, lakes and the occasional water mill along the way; the Schwäbische Waldstraße and the Mühlenstraße are both signposted themes worth following. Surfaces are generally good, but shade keeps some corners damp long after rain, and in autumn the leaves make them slick. Weekend traffic includes plenty of other riders and cyclists, and local authorities do enforce speed limits, so a calm rhythm pays.
Welzheim is a town of about eleven thousand with fuel, bakeries, a Swabian inn or two serving Maultaschen and Spätzle, and a pleasant centre. The Ebnisee, a forest lake a few kilometres away, is popular for a swim in summer and a coffee on its terrace any time of year. For a lunch with a view, push on toward the edge of the Rems valley, where the forest opens and vineyards fall away toward Schorndorf, the birthplace of Gottlieb Daimler, which seems fitting for a day spent on two wheels.