Höhr-Grenzhausen is the capital of the Kannenbäckerland, the jug-bakers' land, a corner of the Westerwald where the clay is so good that people have been making pots from it for five hundred years. The grey stoneware, fired at high temperature and decorated in cobalt blue, was exported across Europe in the form of jugs, tankards and bottles, and the workshops and kilns still fill the town. The German Ceramics Museum in Höhr-Grenzhausen is one of the best of its kind, with objects from medieval jugs to modern art.
The watchtower on our list, WP 1/65, belongs to the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the Roman frontier that crossed the Westerwald on its way from the Rhine, and it is one of a series of towers recorded by early surveyors. The Limes begins at the Rhine at Rheinbrohl, not far from here, where a small information centre and a reconstructed section of palisade and tower help you picture the line.
The ride is attractive. The roads climb from the Rhine valley at Koblenz into the Westerwald, with long, forested ridges, open meadows and small villages, and then drop back to the river, where the Rhine gorge, with its castles, vineyards and the Loreley rock, is a short distance away. The bends are generally smooth, and the surface is good on the main routes and rougher on the forest tracks. Traffic in the Rhine valley can be heavy, particularly on summer weekends, so start early and take the quieter side roads.
Höhr-Grenzhausen has fuel and a good choice of cafes, and the nearby town of Montabaur, with its hilltop castle, is a pleasant detour. Buy a piece of stoneware as a souvenir, but pack it carefully, since a saddlebag is a rough place for a jug. In autumn the Westerwald forests glow with colour, and the air smells of woodsmoke and wet leaves.