The Roman frontier in Germany was not a wall in the way that Hadrian's was in Britain. It was a line of wooden towers, small forts and a ditch and palisade, running for hundreds of kilometres from the Rhine near Neuwied to the Danube, and the stretch here, near Melsbach, is where it began. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, as it is formally called, is a World Heritage Site, and the numbered watchtowers, of which this is one, were the eyes of the frontier.
The towers stood in sight of one another, so a signal could pass along the line, and soldiers manned them in small groups. Little remains of most of them today beyond a low mound, a foundation or a reconstruction, and that is part of their charm. You stand in a quiet woodland clearing in the Westerwald, with oak and beech all around, and you try to imagine a signal fire and a lookout in a cold wind.
The countryside here is rolling, wooded and green. Roads leave the Rhine valley and climb into the Westerwald, with long, easy bends, small villages and farmland, and the surface is generally good. There is not much traffic away from the main roads, and the lanes are pleasant to ride, although fallen leaves in autumn and farm mud in spring can make bends slippery. It is a modest ride rather than a dramatic one, but it has a gentle rhythm.
Neuwied, about four kilometres away, has over sixty-six thousand people and every kind of service, including fuel and food. Melsbach and Rengsdorf are smaller villages with a shop or two and a bakery. A Westerwald speciality is the Kannenbäckerland pottery from further east, though you will find the usual German bakery cakes and sausages more easily.
The ride links this tower with the little fort at Neuss-Reckberg on the Lower Germanic frontier along the Rhine, a nice pairing of the two parts of the Roman line. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, with clear air and good light, and a walk in the woods before you leave is a good way to stretch.