CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Schelklingen it runs 247 km to Schelklingen; allow about 4 h 10 of riding. On the way it passes Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch, Building remains of south of Pfahlheim and back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch. Rivers set the line for much of the day.
Below the village of Schelklingen the Swabian Jura gives up some of the oldest art in the world. In the caves of the Ach and Lone valleys, early modern humans carved ivory and bone about forty thousand years ago, among them a small female figure found in the Hohle Fels cave in 2008, which is among the oldest known sculptures of the human form. Flutes made from bird bone and mammoth ivory turned up too. UNESCO listed six of these caves in 2017 under the title of Caves and Ice Age Art of the Swabian Jura, and a museum in nearby Blaubeuren tells the story well.
Read the complete Ach Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ach Valley is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch.
Lorch, in the Rems valley east of Stuttgart, sits on a historic seam. Just outside town, the Upper German Limes, which ran as a palisade and ditch from the Rhine, met the Raetian Limes, the stone wall running east to the Danube, and the Romans built a fort here to watch over that junction and the valley road. The fort lay beneath what is now the old town centre, and its outline, together with traces of the civilian settlement that grew around it, is marked in places in the streets. It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site, and a reconstructed watchtower stands on a hill nearby.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Building remains of south of Pfahlheim.
The name of the village gives the game away. Pfahlheim, a part of Ellwangen in the Ostalb, takes its name from the Pfahl, the stake line, which is what generations of farmers called the Roman frontier that ran through their fields. Here, at the edge of what is now Baden-Württemberg, the Upper German Limes and the Raetian Limes met, and the building remains south of the village are one of many small components of the UNESCO-listed Upper German-Raetian Limes. The frontier ran almost dead straight across this country for long distances, ignoring hills and streams in a way that still baffles people. There is very little to see on the ground today, perhaps a low bank or a signboard, but the line can be traced by eye if you know where to look.
Read the complete Building remains of south of Pfahlheim write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 122 km into the recorded legs you reach Building remains of south of Pfahlheim. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch, late in the day. Next is Ach Valley.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ach Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Ach Valley. That is the ride.
Ach Valley → Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch → Building remains of south of Pfahlheim is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Building remains of south of Pfahlheim → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Lorsch → Ach Valley is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.