Osterburken is the place on the German Limes where you really can see the Romans in the town. The fort here sat on the frontier in the Bauland, a hilly farming district between the Odenwald and the Neckar, and the museum in the town houses the remains of the fort baths and a rare relief of the god Mithras, an eastern cult favoured by soldiers, whose followers met in small, dark temples to share a sacred meal. The watchtowers 8/29 and 8/30 stand out in the fields a short distance away, part of the line that ran straight over the hills.
The geography explains why Rome put a fort here. The Kirnau valley offers a natural passage through the hills, and the Romans wanted to control who came through. Later, in the third century, Germanic raiding grew, and the garrisons were pulled back. The fort at Osterburken was one of the more strongly built on the Upper Germanic Limes, and its name, which means something like east fort, may preserve the memory of its role.
The surrounding landscape is quiet and rolling, with orchards, meadows and small woods, and the Neckar valley and its castles lie a short ride to the west. Roads through the Bauland are among the better ones in northern Baden: they curve over low ridges, drop into villages with half-timbered houses, and have good surfaces with moderate traffic. Spring blossom, golden autumn and the long evening light of June are the best times. Be careful with farm traffic, and with mud on the road after harvest or heavy rain.
Osterburken itself has fuel, supermarkets, bakeries and a couple of restaurants, and Adelsheim, a little further, has more of the same. A plate of roast pork with dumplings or a wedge of Black Forest cake is the local solution to tiredness. If you want to see the Romans, visit the museum first, because it makes the lonely tower sites much easier to read, then ride out to the fields and stand where the watchmen stood.