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.
A 338 km round trip from Hengstdal - roughly 4 h 54 in the saddle. It goes by way of Kalkar-Kalkarberg, Moers-Asberg, Neuss-Koenenlager and Cologne Cathedral. It crosses from Netherlands into Germany - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 42 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The Swartendijk stretch lies on the quiet side of the hills, away from the villas and museums of Berg en Dal. This is where the Heilig Land Stichting, the Holy Land Foundation, was set up in the nineteenth century by Dutch Catholics, who built an enormous religious theme park with replicas of biblical sites, a Golgotha, a Jordan river and a Holy Sepulchre, in the woods and hills near the German border. It still exists, though it now has the air of a very large and slightly surreal garden, and it stands as a reminder that these slopes have been a place of pilgrimage as well as war.
Read the complete Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Swartendijk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Swartendijk is where the day begins. Next is Kalkar-Kalkarberg.
Near the Dutch border, where the Rhine flows through wide meadows and dyked farmland, the small town of Kalkar holds a surprising amount of history. The Kalkarberg is a low rise near Altkalkar, and on it stood the Roman fort of Burginatium, one of the posts along the Lower German Limes, now part of the UNESCO-listed Frontiers of the Roman Empire. The rise would have given a valuable view over the river plain, and the fort controlled the road between Xanten and Nijmegen. Today it is fields and trees, but the shape of the land still hints at the old fortification.
Read the complete Kalkar-Kalkarberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalkar-Kalkarberg comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Moers-Asberg.
Asberg is a quiet district on the southern edge of Moers, on the left bank of the Lower Rhine, and beneath its houses and fields lies the Roman fort of Asciburgium, one of the earliest military bases on the Rhine frontier. It was founded around the time of the emperor Augustus or soon after, garrisoned by cavalry and auxiliary troops, and abandoned toward the end of the first century, when the Rhine shifted its course and moved away from the fort. The site is now part of the Lower German Limes UNESCO site, and although there is little to see above ground, information boards and outlines help you imagine the scene.
Read the complete Moers-Asberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Moers-Asberg. Next is Neuss-Koenenlager.
On the southern edge of Neuss, in a residential area near the Rhine, lies one of the most important Roman military sites in Germany, though you would hardly know it from the surface. This was Novaesium, a legionary fortress that housed thousands of soldiers for much of the first century, and it is known as the Koenenlager after Constantin Koenen, the local archaeologist who excavated it systematically in the late nineteenth century. His work revealed the layout of an entire legionary camp, with headquarters, barracks, granaries and a hospital, and it became a model for Roman military archaeology. The site is part of the Lower German Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Neuss-Koenenlager write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Neuss-Koenenlager, about halfway. Next is Cologne Cathedral.
Six hundred and thirty-two years. That is how long it took to finish Cologne Cathedral, from the laying of the foundation stone in 1248 to the completion of the spires in 1880, and when you stand at its foot by the main station it feels as though the building is still growing. The twin towers climb to around 157 metres, black with soot and weather, and for a few years after completion they made it the tallest building in the world.
Read the complete Cologne Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cologne Cathedral sits at 177 km, about halfway. Next is back through Neuss-Koenenlager.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Neuss-Koenenlager write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Neuss-Koenenlager comes up about 208 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Moers-Asberg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Moers-Asberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 246 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Moers-Asberg. Next is back through Kalkar-Kalkarberg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kalkar-Kalkarberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kalkar-Kalkarberg, late in the day. Next is Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Swartendijk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Swartendijk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 338 km.
Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Swartendijk → Kalkar-Kalkarberg is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kalkar-Kalkarberg → Moers-Asberg is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Moers-Asberg → Neuss-Koenenlager is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Neuss-Koenenlager → Cologne Cathedral is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cologne Cathedral → back through Neuss-Koenenlager is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Neuss-Koenenlager → back through Moers-Asberg is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Moers-Asberg → back through Kalkar-Kalkarberg is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kalkar-Kalkarberg → Berg en Dal-aqueduct | Swartendijk is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.