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.
258 km from Wehrheim to Wehrheim, about 4 h of riding. The stops in between: Fort Schrenzer, Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73, Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens and back through Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73. The line favours views over speed.
27 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 70 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
If you want to know what a Roman fort on the German frontier really looked like, the Saalburg is the place, and these building remains lie in the forest just southwest of it, part of the civilian and military landscape that grew up around the fort. The Saalburg itself was rebuilt at the beginning of the twentieth century on the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was fascinated by Roman history and keen to present the German empire as the heir of Rome. The walls, gates, headquarters building and granaries were reconstructed on the original foundations, based on the archaeology of the time, and today the fort houses a museum full of finds from the frontier, along with workshops, a Roman garden and regular events with reenactors.
Read the complete Building remains southwest of Saalburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Building remains southwest of Saalburg is where the day begins. Next is Fort Schrenzer.
Butzbach sits at the northern edge of the Wetterau, a broad, fertile plain north of Frankfurt, where the Taunus ends and the land opens out into fields of wheat, sugar beet and rapeseed. The Romans prized this land, and their frontier made a long detour around it, swinging east and then south to include the Wetterau within the empire. Near Butzbach, on the Schrenzer hill, they built a small fort, the Kastell Schrenzer, to guard the frontier where it left the Taunus and began its loop around the plain. The fort and the frontier nearby are part of the frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site, and the remains, low earthworks in the woods, can be visited on foot.
Read the complete Fort Schrenzer write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort Schrenzer comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73.
Behind the name is a number system, because the Limes archaeologists gave every watchtower a code. WP means Wachposten, a watchtower, and 4/72 means the seventy-second one on the fourth section of the frontier, the one that crosses the Wetterau. This pair of towers stands in farmland near Hungen, in central Hesse, and the Romans placed them on a gentle rise from which a watchman could see across the open plain and signal to the next tower along the line.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens.
Seligenstadt is one of those Main valley towns where every era has left something on the table. The Romans came first: here the frontier of the Upper German-Raetian Limes ran along the river itself, and a fort with a civilian settlement around it guarded the Main crossing. The fort site lies under the old town, so you are walking over it rather than looking at it, but the logic of the place is obvious when you stand by the water. The river was the border, the road and the supply line all at once.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73 sits at 155 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort Schrenzer.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort Schrenzer write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fort Schrenzer comes up about 229 km into the recorded legs. Next is Building remains southwest of Saalburg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Building remains southwest of Saalburg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Building remains southwest of Saalburg closes the day.
Building remains southwest of Saalburg → Fort Schrenzer is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort Schrenzer → Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73 is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73 → Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Seligens → back through Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73 is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 4/72 to 4/73 → back through Fort Schrenzer is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fort Schrenzer → Building remains southwest of Saalburg is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.