CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
286 km from Dormagen to Dormagen, about 4 h 34 of riding. On the way it passes Krefeld-Gellep, Alpen-Drüpt, Till and Nijmegen-Hunerberg. It crosses from Germany into Netherlands - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Dormagen is not the sort of place that ends up on postcards, and it does not try to be. It is a working town of some sixty thousand on the left bank of the Rhine between Cologne and Düsseldorf, dominated on its northern side by a huge chemical park whose pipes and stacks glow at night. Yet the name itself comes from Roman times: Durnomagus was a fort on the Lower German Limes, the Rhine frontier that UNESCO listed in 2021, and a cavalry unit was stationed here to patrol the river and the road along it.
Read the complete Dormagen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dormagen is where the day begins. Next is Krefeld-Gellep.
Most people pass Krefeld-Gellep without a second thought, because the view is dominated by the harbour of Uerdingen, chemical works and Rhine barges. Yet this is one of the most important Roman and early medieval sites on the Lower Rhine. The Roman fort here was called Gelduba, and it belongs to the Lower German Limes, the frontier along the river that UNESCO recognised in 2021. Tacitus mentions Gelduba in his account of the Batavian revolt of 69 and 70 AD, when legions and rebels fought around the camp, and archaeologists have found traces of that violence in the ground.
Read the complete Krefeld-Gellep write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Krefeld-Gellep comes up 39 km in. Next is Alpen-Drüpt.
On the flat farmland of the Lower Rhine, between Alpen and Rheinberg, there is little to catch the eye: fields of maize and potatoes, poplars along ditches, brick farmhouses and the occasional windmill. Yet this was once the edge of the Roman world. The Rhine formed the frontier of the empire, and along its banks the Romans built legionary fortresses, forts, watchtowers and temporary camps. Alpen-Drüpt is one of the sites included in the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Lower German Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021; like many on the list, it survives mainly below ground, known from aerial photographs and excavations rather than standing ruins.
Read the complete Alpen-Drüpt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
77 km in you reach Alpen-Drüpt. Next is Till.
The Lower Rhine around Kalkar and Kleve is wide, flat country: green polders, willows along drainage ditches, brick farmhouses and church spires visible for miles. Till is a small village here, part of Bedburg-Hau, just off the Rhine embankments between Kalkar and Kleve, with Emmerich across the river. It lies close to the line of the Roman frontier, the Lower German Limes, which followed the Rhine to the North Sea.
Read the complete Till write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Till, about halfway. Next is Nijmegen-Hunerberg.
Julius Civilis was a Batavian noble who had served in the Roman army, and in the year 69 he turned against it. The Batavians, a Germanic people who lived on the Rhine delta, rose in revolt during the civil war that followed Nero's death, and for a year they threatened Roman power on the northern frontier. Nijmegen, then a Batavian town, was burned, and when the rebellion was crushed, the Romans built a new, massive legionary fortress on the Hunerberg, a rise on the edge of the town, to keep control. The Tenth Legion, called Gemina, was stationed there for more than thirty years, and the settlement that grew beside it became a Roman town with a grid of streets, baths and a market.
Read the complete Nijmegen-Hunerberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nijmegen-Hunerberg sits at 154 km, about halfway. Next is back through Till.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Till write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Till comes up 193 km in. Next is back through Alpen-Drüpt.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Alpen-Drüpt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
231 km in you reach back through Alpen-Drüpt. Next is back through Krefeld-Gellep.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Krefeld-Gellep write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Krefeld-Gellep, late in the day. Next is Dormagen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dormagen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 286 km.
Dormagen → Krefeld-Gellep is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Krefeld-Gellep → Alpen-Drüpt is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Alpen-Drüpt → Till is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Till → Nijmegen-Hunerberg is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nijmegen-Hunerberg → back through Till is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Till → back through Alpen-Drüpt is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Alpen-Drüpt → back through Krefeld-Gellep is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Krefeld-Gellep → Dormagen is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.