Between Öhringen and Mainhardt, the Upper German Limes does something a Roman engineer must have been proud of: it runs dead straight for many kilometres, up hill and down dale, ignoring the terrain as if drawn with a ruler on a map. The watchtower sites numbered along this section lie on that line, in the Hohenlohe country of northern Württemberg, between the open farmland around Pfedelbach and the dark wooded hills of the Swabian-Franconian Forest.
On the ground, you will find the bank and ditch of the frontier running through woods, the foundations of some towers, and in places reconstructed timber towers that give a sense of how the line worked. Soldiers in each post could signal to the next, and behind them lay forts such as those at Öhringen, where two garrisons were stationed, and at Mainhardt, where a small museum tells the story. The Limes here was a palisade with a bank and ditch rather than a wall, and when the frontier was abandoned in the third century the forest slowly took it back.
The riding is the kind that sneaks up on you. North of the forest, Hohenlohe is a gently rolling plateau of wheat fields, vineyards on south-facing slopes and small towns with castles, the land of the princely Hohenlohe family. Climb south into the Swabian-Franconian Forest and the roads narrow, twist and dive through dense spruce and beech, past mills, ponds and tiny hamlets. Surfaces are generally good, though leaves, mud from logging and the odd deer demand attention, particularly in autumn and at dusk.
Öhringen has more than twenty thousand residents and Pfedelbach several thousand, so fuel and food are close at hand. The region is proud of its cuisine: Hohenlohe beef and the local Schwäbisch-Hällisch pig, a dark-headed breed brought back from near extinction, turn up on many menus. A glass of Lemberger or Trollinger from the Hohenlohe vineyards rounds things off, though perhaps save that for the end of the day.