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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 346 km round trip from Butzbach - roughly 5 h 51 in the saddle. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 3/49*, Watchtower WP 3/4*, Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a and Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 3/49*.
High in the Taunus, the wooded hills northwest of Frankfurt, the Roman Limes followed the ridge line, and its watchtowers looked out over the forests to the north. Watchtower WP 3/49, near Schmitten and Glashütten, is one of hundreds of such posts recorded along the frontier, and today its remains lie in the woods, a low mound or a scatter of stones. The Limes path, a long-distance walking trail, follows the line through the forest, and walkers can trace the ditch and bank of the old frontier for kilometres. The whole line is part of the Upper German-Raetian Limes World Heritage site.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/49* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 3/49* comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtower WP 3/4*.
In the western Taunus, between Bad Schwalbach and Taunusstein, the forest is thick and the hills roll gently, and the Upper German Limes runs along the ridge here as a still visible bank and ditch. The site labelled Watchtower WP 3/4 is one of the many small posts along this section, and a few kilometres to the east, near Taunusstein-Orlen, the fort of Zugmantel guarded a crossing of the frontier on an old trade route into Germanic territory. These remains are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site, and a walk along the Limes trail through the forest here is peaceful and atmospheric.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/4* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtower WP 3/4*. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a.
Up on the plateau of the Hintertaunus, north of the Rhine gorge, the Roman frontier crossed a quiet landscape of fields and forest near Singhofen, and a section of it between two watchtowers survives here as a faint bank and ditch running through the woods. This is the Upper German Limes, which ran for more than five hundred kilometres from the Rhine to the Danube, marking the boundary between the Roman Empire and the free Germanic tribes from the second century until the Romans withdrew in the third. It was not a great wall like Hadrian's in Britain, but a line of watchtowers, forts and a timber palisade, later strengthened with a ditch and bank. Together with the Raetian Limes, it was listed by UNESCO in 2005.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a, about halfway. Next is Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci.
The Taunus is the green upland that keeps Frankfurt's weekend riders sane, and running right across it is the line of the Roman frontier. The stretch of watchtowers numbered 3/1 to 3/14 lies near Taunusstein, north of Wiesbaden, where the Upper Germanic Limes crossed the ridge, and it includes the remains of forts and their civilian settlements. One of the best known nearby is the fort of Zugmantel, near the hamlet of Orlen, where the outline of the fort, the palisade line and reconstructed watchtowers give a real sense of the frontier. The whole line is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci sits at 141 km, about halfway. Next is back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a comes up about 213 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/4*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/4* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 252 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtower WP 3/4*. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/49*.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/49* write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 3/49*, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 346 km.
Fort Schrenzer → Watchtower WP 3/49* is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/49* → Watchtower WP 3/4* is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/4* → Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a → Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 3/1 to 3/14 including the ci → back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Limessection between watchtowers WP 2/13 a → back through Watchtower WP 3/4* is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/4* → back through Watchtower WP 3/49* is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 3/49* → Fort Schrenzer is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.