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 Buchen in Odenwald it runs 264 km to Buchen in Odenwald; allow about 4 h 36 of riding. It goes by way of Building remains south of the watchtower W, Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 and back through Building remains south of the watchtower W. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Odenwald is old, rounded country, a forested upland between the Rhine and the Main, and the Limes crosses its eastern edge in a line so straight that it looks drawn with a ruler. Near Gotzingen, a village in the Buchen district of Baden-Wurttemberg, the frontier ran past a small Roman building that archaeologists found in the fields. The remains are the foundations of a small military station or a farm building, in a place where the soldiers lived close to the line. It is a modest site, but it shows that the frontier was more than a wall.
Read the complete Building remains north of Götzingen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Building remains north of Götzingen is where the day begins. Next is Building remains south of the watchtower W.
Mainhardt sits high in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, between Heilbronn and Schwäbisch Hall, on a wooded plateau that the Romans chose for one of the forts guarding their frontier. The Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes runs through here on its long, ruler-straight stretch heading south towards Welzheim, and along it stood watchtowers every few hundred metres, with small buildings nearby for the soldiers who manned them. The remains south of one of these towers are modest, low foundations in a clearing or under the forest floor, but they are part of the World Heritage frontier that runs for more than five hundred kilometres across Germany. The village has a small Roman museum that explains the fort and its garrison.
Read the complete Building remains south of the watchtower W write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Building remains south of the watchtower W comes up about 72 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85.
In the forests near Ellwangen the Roman frontier changes character. Here the Upper Germanic Limes, with its timber palisade and ditch, meets the Raetian Limes, which the Romans eventually built as a stone wall, and the stretch of watchtowers numbered 12/69 to 12/85 runs through the farmland and woods east of the Jagst. Archaeologists number the towers with slashes and digits, which makes them sound like spare parts, but each one was a small stone or timber post with a few soldiers watching the border, passing signals along the line. Together they form part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 132 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85. Next is back through Building remains south of the watchtower W.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Building remains south of the watchtower W write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Building remains south of the watchtower W, late in the day. Next is Building remains north of Götzingen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Building remains north of Götzingen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Building remains north of Götzingen. That is the ride.
Building remains north of Götzingen → Building remains south of the watchtower W is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Building remains south of the watchtower W → Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/69 to 12/85 → back through Building remains south of the watchtower W is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Building remains south of the watchtower W → Building remains north of Götzingen is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.