There is no spectacle at this section of the Limes, and that is exactly its character. It lies in the hills of the lower Westerwald, between Hillscheid, Höhr-Grenzhausen and little Simmern, about the point where the Roman frontier crossed from the Rhine side towards the Lahn. The Romans marked it with watchtowers, numbered by archaeologists in a long sequence from the Rhine eastwards, and this is watchtower position 1/67 on the first section of the frontier. Between them ran a palisade and a ditch. Today you meet it as a faint line in the woods, a bump in a field, a reconstruction here and there, and a sign with a map.
What makes the area rewarding for riders is the country around it. These are low forested hills with small valleys, and the roads that connect the villages are tight, narrow and often twisty, with a sprinkling of hairpin-ish bends where they drop to a stream. Surfaces vary; some are smooth, some patched, and forestry traffic leaves gravel on corners. Be gentle on damp mornings under the trees. The Westerwald weather is quick to change, cool and wet more often than the Rhine valley down below, and a thin jacket liner is a good idea even in summer.
Höhr-Grenzhausen is the town to know. With nearly ten thousand people it has fuel and food, and it sits at the heart of the Kannenbäckerland, the Jug Bakers' Land, a district famous for centuries for its grey stoneware with cobalt blue decoration. The clay lies right under the hills, and potters have worked here since the Middle Ages. There is a ceramics museum in the town, and the shops sell salt-glazed mugs and jugs that make surprisingly sensible souvenirs for riders with a pannier.
Hillscheid and Simmern are small, with just a couple of thousand people at most, so do not rely on them for fuel late in the day. It is a pleasant, unshowy corner, the sort of place for a slow pass through the woods, a pause at a watchtower sign, and then a coffee in a town that still makes jugs.