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 Bad Kissingen it runs 346 km to Bad Kissingen; allow about 4 h 56 of riding. On the way it passes Rosenbach Park, Watchtower WP 7/37, Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort and Fortlet Lehnenwiesen. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Scenic road chapters
Romantic Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 62 km this is Romantic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
Length
62 km
Named road
Romantic Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Bad Kissingen
Bad Kissingen is a spa town in the northern corner of Bavaria, in the valley of the Franconian Saale, between the Rhön hills and the Spessart. People have taken the waters here since the Middle Ages, and in the nineteenth century the town became one of the great resorts of Europe, visited by Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, by tsars and kings, and by Bismarck, who drafted his famous Kissinger Diktat in 1877. In 2021 UNESCO added the town to its list of the Great Spa Towns of Europe, alongside Baden-Baden, Bath, Karlsbad and others.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bad Kissingen is where the day begins. Next is Rosenbach Park.
2. Rosenbach Park
Würzburg sits on the Main in lower Franconia, and the Rosenbach label puts you on its northern edge of green space, a few minutes from the old centre rather than out in open country. Take it as what it is, a pleasant city stop among the trams and one-way streets, and the real interest lies in the town around it.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Rosenbach Park comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 7/37.
3. Watchtower WP 7/37
The Romans liked straight lines, and nowhere more than here. On the edge of Walldürn, in the hilly country between the Odenwald and the Tauber valley, runs the course of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes, the frontier wall that marked the edge of the Roman Empire across what is now southern Germany. Watchtower WP 7/37 is one of hundreds of small posts that lined it, each within sight of the next, so that signals could be passed along the frontier. The Limes here famously runs almost dead straight for many kilometres, regardless of hills and valleys, a statement of Roman confidence and surveying skill.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least about 124 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 7/37. Next is Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort.
4. Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort
The Romans did not much care for the shape of the land when they drew this frontier. Around Osterburken the Upper Germanic Limes stops following valleys and ridges and simply runs in long, stubborn straight lines across the Bauland, the rolling limestone country between the Odenwald and the Jagst. The watchtower sites numbered in this stretch were once timber, then stone, posts spaced so that each could see its neighbours, strung along a palisade and ditch that marked where the province ended and the unconquered north began.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort, about halfway. Next is Fortlet Lehnenwiesen.
5. Fortlet Lehnenwiesen
Götz von Berlichingen, the knight with the iron hand, was born in Jagsthausen around 1480, and he is remembered for a rude phrase he supposedly shouted at an enemy, made famous by Goethe in his play about the knight. Jagsthausen's castle, where Götz grew up, hosts an open-air theatre festival every summer, and the iron hand, a prosthesis he wore after losing his right hand in battle, is displayed there. A few kilometres away, in the fields near Widdern, the fortlet of Lehnenwiesen was a small Roman post on the Upper Germanic Limes, part of the chain of forts and watchtowers that ran through this landscape.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 346 km.
Leg by leg
Bad Kissingen to Rosenbach Park
Bad Kissingen → Rosenbach Park is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rosenbach Park to Watchtower WP 7/37
Rosenbach Park → Watchtower WP 7/37 is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 7/37 to Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort
Watchtower WP 7/37 → Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort to Fortlet Lehnenwiesen
Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort → Fortlet Lehnenwiesen is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fortlet Lehnenwiesen to back through Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort
Fortlet Lehnenwiesen → back through Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort to back through Watchtower WP 7/37
back through Watchtowers WP 8/11 to 8/28 including fort → back through Watchtower WP 7/37 is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 7/37 to back through Rosenbach Park
back through Watchtower WP 7/37 → back through Rosenbach Park is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rosenbach Park to Bad Kissingen
back through Rosenbach Park → Bad Kissingen is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.