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 Ellwangen it runs 299 km to Ellwangen; allow about 5 h 20 of riding. The stops in between: Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59, Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th, Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb and Watchtowers WP 9/100. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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.
Building remains of south of Pfahlheim is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59.
The Romans called it the edge of the world they cared about, and in the Rems valley east of Schwäbisch Gmünd you can still trace where they drew the line. A string of watchtower sites, numbered by archaeologists along the stretch between Mögglingen, Heuchlingen and Böbingen, marks the course of the Raetian Limes, the frontier that guarded the province of Raetia in the second and third centuries. Here the frontier was a stone wall, which later locals, puzzled by the long ruined bank, called the Teufelsmauer, the Devil's Wall.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th.
There is a stretch of the Roman frontier in southern Germany that runs almost perfectly straight for about eighty kilometres, from Walldürn in the Odenwald to near Welzheim in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, ignoring hills and valleys alike, as if the surveyors had simply drawn a line on a map. The watchtowers numbered WP 9/101 to 9/131 stand near the southern end of that line, in the forests around Kaisersbach and Welzheim, where the Limes finally turns.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 71 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb.
The Rems valley runs east from Stuttgart towards the edge of the Swabian Jura, and Unterböbingen lies just outside the village of Böbingen, with Heubach three kilometres on and the long wooded wall of the Alb rising behind. The ground here is gently rolling farmland, orchards, small fields and the occasional church spire, the kind of country that looks entirely ordinary until you remember who once held it.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb, about halfway. Next is Watchtowers WP 9/100.
The Limes in the Swabian-Franconian Forest has a quality that surprises people who expect Roman walls to follow hills: it runs in a dead-straight line, for kilometres at a stretch, regardless of what stands in the way. Near Murrhardt the line dives through woodland and valleys, and the signposted watchtower sites mark points where a timber and later stone tower stood on the frontier, with a ditch and a palisade or bank beside it. The numbering, with its slash, comes from the nineteenth-century surveyors who first mapped the frontier, and archaeologists still use it.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/100 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 9/100 sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb comes up about 186 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 226 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59, late in the day. Next is Building remains of south of Pfahlheim.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Building remains of south of Pfahlheim write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 299 km.
Building remains of south of Pfahlheim → Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 → Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th → Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb → Watchtowers WP 9/100 is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 9/100 → back through Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort site and civil settlement of Unterböb → back through Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th → back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 → Building remains of south of Pfahlheim is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.