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.
76 km from Arzbach to Arzbach, about 1 h 47 of riding. It goes by way of Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57, Watchtowers WP 1/23 to 1/24 and back through Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57. 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 20 km this is Moselle Wine Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Arzbach sits a few kilometres north of the Lahn, in the wooded Westerwald hills behind Bad Ems, and it is one of those places where the Roman Empire left a mark you have to squint to see. The fort and its civil settlement belonged to the Upper German-Raetian frontier, the Limes, which ran for hundreds of kilometres from the Rhine near Rheinbrohl all the way to the Danube. Here it was a ditch, a rampart and a timber palisade, studded with watchtowers within sight of one another. Nothing grand survives above ground in the village itself. What you get is the lie of the land: a ridge chosen because a sentry could see from it, and a settlement that grew beside the soldiers because soldiers need bread, boots and beer.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach is where the day begins. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57.
This stretch of the Limes sits close to Bendorf and Stromberg, on the plateau above the Rhine near Koblenz, and the watchtowers numbered here, five in all, follow the line as it climbs from the river. The frontier was a controlled boundary: a palisade or bank, a ditch, and a series of towers within sight of each other, with a patrol path behind. Traces survive as low banks in forest and field, and some positions have been marked or partly reconstructed, which makes this a good place to understand how the system worked.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 1/23 to 1/24.
The Upper German-Raetian Limes began at the Rhine, at Rheinbrohl, and climbed into the hills on the east bank, and towers WP 1/23 and 1/24, near the wine village of Leutesdorf, are among the first along its route. They are now marked by foundations or mounds in the forest above the river, and they are part of the World Heritage listing. From here the frontier ran for more than five hundred kilometres to the Danube, and it is fascinating to stand at the very beginning of such an enormous undertaking.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/23 to 1/24 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 38 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 1/23 to 1/24. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57, late in the day. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach. That is the ride.
Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach → Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 → Watchtowers WP 1/23 to 1/24 is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 1/23 to 1/24 → back through Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 1/53 to 1/57 → Fort site and civil settlement of Arzbach is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.