Near Rainau, not far from here, the Romans built a monumental gate in the Raetian Limes, a showpiece entrance probably connected with a visit by the emperor Caracalla in the early third century. Today the Limestor Dalkingen is protected under a glass and steel shelter, an impressive sight. The watchtowers numbered in this section, around Stödtlen, Wört and Tannhausen, were part of the same frontier, which ran here as a stone wall across the hilly country between the Ries crater and the Swabian Forest, toward the Danube.
The landscape is the Virngrund, a large forest area of spruce and beech, with clearings, ponds and small villages. Ellwangen, to the west, is a charming baroque town with a castle and a pilgrimage church on a hill. Dinkelsbühl, about ten kilometres to the north-east, is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Germany, with its walls, towers and gates intact and its streets lined with half-timbered houses. Every July, it celebrates the Kinderzeche, a festival that commemorates how the town's children saved it from destruction during the Thirty Years' War, according to legend.
The riding is pleasant and relaxed. The roads through the forest are gentle, with curves, hills and long straights, and the surface is generally good. Traffic is light outside the towns. The Romantic Road, a tourist route through Franconia and Swabia, passes through Dinkelsbühl, and it is busy with coaches in summer, so the side roads are often more enjoyable. Watch for wildlife, especially deer at dawn and dusk, and for tractors. Weather is continental, with warm summers and cold winters.
The villages around the watchtowers are small; for fuel and services, Dinkelsbühl and Ellwangen are the best options. Food here is Swabian and Franconian, with roast pork, dumplings, carp from the local ponds and good beer. Dinkelsbühl's old town has many inns and cafés. Visit the Limes gate at Dalkingen to see the scale of Roman ambition, then ride through the forest along the line of the wall, and finish with a walk through Dinkelsbühl's medieval streets.