Why this ride
315 km from Bonn to Bonn, about 6 h 42 of riding. It goes by way of Iversheim, Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1, Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the and Watchtower WP 1/73. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Bonn and Watchtower WP 1/73
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 315 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 42
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Moselle Wine Route
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 49 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 49 km
- Named road
- Moselle Wine Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Bonn
Bonn is a university city that spent forty years pretending to be a capital, and it carried it off with a modest air. After the war it became the seat of the West German government, and the former federal quarter along the Rhine still has the clean, low-key look of ministries designed not to impress. Before that, Bonn had been a seat of the Cologne prince-electors, whose baroque palace now houses the university, and it was also the birthplace of Beethoven, whose small house in the old town is one of the most visited composer museums anywhere.
Read the complete Bonn write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bonn is where the day begins. Next is Iversheim.
2. Iversheim
Iversheim is a village in the valley of the Erft, at the northern edge of the Eifel, just downstream from the old spa town of Bad Münstereifel. It is known for one thing: a Roman lime-burning works, one of the best preserved in Europe. The Romans built a series of kilns here to burn limestone from the surrounding hills into quicklime, which was used to make mortar for the forts, towns and roads of the province of Lower Germany. The kilns were worked by detachments of soldiers from the Rhine legions, as inscriptions found on the site show.
Read the complete Iversheim write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Iversheim comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1.
3. Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1
The Kottenforst is a big, flat-topped wooded ridge south-west of Bonn, an island of oak and hornbeam in a landscape of fields and commuter towns. It was a hunting forest of the Electors of Cologne, and the straight avenues that cut through it, still named Allee, were laid out in the eighteenth century so that a hunting party could ride after game, or follow falcons, in a precise geometric pattern. Elector Clemens August, who built the Augustusburg palace at Brühl and the little hunting lodge of Falkenlust beside it, loved heron hunting with falcons, and the avenues were part of that grand and slightly absurd game.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 73 km into the recorded legs you reach Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the.
4. Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the
Here is where the Upper German-Raetian Limes, the longest stretch of Roman frontier in Europe, begins. The Romans started the line at the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and ran it up over the hills of the Westerwald, then on through the Taunus and beyond for more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube. The section with watchtowers numbered WP 1/11 to 1/20 follows the first climb away from the river through the forests above Rheinbrohl, Hammerstein and Niederbreitbach. Most of the towers survive only as low mounds of stone in the woods, but the course of the frontier ditch and rampart can often be traced on foot, and there are information boards and a few reconstructions along the way.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the, about halfway. Next is Watchtower WP 1/73.
5. Watchtower WP 1/73
The Roman frontier in Germany starts at the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and climbs into the hills of the Westerwald, and Watchtower WP 1/73, near Hillscheid, belongs to that first stretch. The numbers tell you where you are: section one, tower seventy-three. All that survives is a low mound in the woods, but in the second and third centuries it was a stone tower with a view over the frontier line and, behind it, the palisade and ditch that ran across the landscape. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes has been part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire since 2005, and this is where it all begins.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 1/73 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Watchtower WP 1/73 sits at 144 km, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the.
6. back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the comes up about 203 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1.
7. back through Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 243 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1. Next is back through Iversheim.
8. back through Iversheim
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Iversheim write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Iversheim, late in the day. Next is Bonn.
9. Bonn
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bonn write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 315 km.
Leg by leg
Bonn to Iversheim
Bonn → Iversheim is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Iversheim to Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1
Iversheim → Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1 is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1 to Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the
Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1 → Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the to Watchtower WP 1/73
Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the → Watchtower WP 1/73 is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 1/73 to back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the
Watchtower WP 1/73 → back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the to back through Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1
back through Watchtowers WP 1/11 to 1/20 including the → back through Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1 to back through Iversheim
back through Kottenforst Süd | Wattendorfer Allee 1 → back through Iversheim is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Iversheim to Bonn
back through Iversheim → Bonn is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.