The western Taunus is wonderfully empty. Away from the commuter belt around Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, the hills north of Bad Schwalbach turn into a quiet patchwork of forest, small meadows and villages in the Heidenrod municipality, and right through the middle runs the Limes. Today you find grassy outlines, a few markers and the bank and ditch disappearing into the beech woods.
It helps to know what you are looking at. The fort stood on the high ground where an old ridge route crossed the frontier, and the Roman road network here would have linked it back towards Wiesbaden, the spa the Romans called Aquae Mattiacorum. Hot springs were a big part of Roman life on this frontier, and the whole Taunus is still dotted with spa towns. Bad Schwalbach, five kilometres away, built its fortune on iron-rich mineral springs and became a fashionable resort in the nineteenth century; its elegant spa park and old pump rooms make a pleasant place to sit with a coffee.
This is a fine corner for riding. The B260, known as the Bäderstraße, runs from Wiesbaden through Bad Schwalbach towards Nassau and Bad Ems, linking spa towns through wooded valleys with an excellent rhythm of curves. The Aar valley road towards Diez is another favourite. Around Kemel itself the roads cross open upland with long views, then dive into forest where the tarmac stays damp in the shade well into the morning. Deer cross at dusk, and you will see plenty of other bikes on sunny weekends, so ride as if somebody is always coming the other way.
Practical matters are simple. Bad Schwalbach and Taunusstein have fuel, supermarkets and places to eat; the hill villages offer an inn or a bakery at best. Spring brings a haze of bluebells and wood anemones under the beeches, and October paints the slopes rust and gold. Stand on the line of the Limes in that light and look north into the folded hills, and you will see roughly what a bored soldier saw: trees, mist and an awful lot of Germany.