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.
A 293 km round trip from Weißenburg in Bayern - roughly 5 h 24 in the saddle. The stops in between: Watchtower WP 13/40, Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for, Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 and Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 39 km this is Romantic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Weißenburg in Bayern is the best Roman stop in this part of Franconia, and the fort here, known in antiquity as Biriciana, was a serious place. It stood on the Upper German-Raetian Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2005, and it held a cavalry unit at its height. Today you can walk the reconstructed gate and walls and then visit the Roman baths, which are among the best preserved in southern Germany and sit under a modern roof beside the old town. In 1979, builders found a hoard of bronze and silver objects buried in the fort's grounds, the Weißenburg treasure, which includes ceremonial armour, and it is now one of the key finds of Roman Bavaria.
Read the complete Fort site and civil setllement of Weissenb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil setllement of Weissenb is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 13/40.
The Raetian Limes, the eastern part of the Roman frontier in Germany, is different from the Upper Germanic section, because here the Romans built a wall. The remains of the stone wall, which stretches across Bavaria for about a hundred and sixty kilometres, are known locally as the Devil's Wall, the Teufelsmauer, because people long believed that no human could have made it. Watchtower WP 13/40, near the village of Arberg in Middle Franconia, stands along this section, and its foundations can be traced in a field or at the edge of a wood.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 13/40 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtower WP 13/40 comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for.
Near Rainau, not far from here, the Romans built a monumental gate in the Raetian Limes, a showpiece entrance probably connected with a visit by the emperor Caracalla in the early third century. Today the Limestor Dalkingen is protected under a glass and steel shelter, an impressive sight. The watchtowers numbered in this section, around Stödtlen, Wört and Tannhausen, were part of the same frontier, which ran here as a stone wall across the hilly country between the Ries crater and the Swabian Forest, toward the Danube.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for. 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, about halfway. 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.
Watchtowers WP 9/101 to 9/131 including th sits at 148 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 184 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 222 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for. Next is back through Watchtower WP 13/40.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtower WP 13/40 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtower WP 13/40, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil setllement of Weissenb.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil setllement of Weissenb write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 293 km.
Fort site and civil setllement of Weissenb → Watchtower WP 13/40 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtower WP 13/40 → Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for → Watchtowers WP 12/40 to 12/59 is 38 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 → 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 → back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/86 to 13/5 including for → back through Watchtower WP 13/40 is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtower WP 13/40 → Fort site and civil setllement of Weissenb is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.